entangled networks

I was selected from an open call to deliver three screening & discussion events responding to the theme of “Reclaiming Digital Agency” for IMPAKT Festival 2023, Our Terms, Our Conditions. I curated one short film per event, researched the themes, invited participants from Policy Officers to digital artists and facilitated each open discussion.

ENTANGLED NETWORKS is a series of three Screening and discussion events examines our networked society through the lens of three themes: community, categorisation and commodification. Each event explores one of these interconnected themes through the screening of a short film followed by a discussion. Together, we will examine the increasingly opaque ways in which our data is being used. In the communal, non-hierarchical discussion that follows each screening, we will try to re-imagine our world of data as a world of possibility, and begin to understand how we might reclaim our digital agency.

The short films are our tools and departure points for these discussions. We will think through each film collectively, and consider the themes and possibilities it presents.

PLAYERS

Players, the first Screening and discussion, focuses on community. We will examine our individual and collective engagement with video games, and how the gamification of our work and leisure presents an obstacle to community building. We will also look at the potential of using alternative video games to reclaim digital agency at the interpersonal level.

Participants: v buckenham, Sjef van Beers (NL)
Moderated by: Miranda Mungai (UK)

We will start this session with a viewing of A Wider Screen (Joe Hunting, 2019), a short VR documentary exploring how virtual embodiment affects the way we socialise, love and express ourselves.

Stay with us afterwards for a discussion with game artists v buckenham and Sjef van Beers about virtual sociality and what we can learn from alternative gaming cultures. buckenham’s practice combines a playful attitude to sociality with an accessible methodology for alternative game building. Van Beers’ recent research project Gamer Keyboard Wallpiece no. 1 considers the toxic gaming cultures that have developed in the wake of the GamerGate online harassment campaign, and the new modes of sociality that have emerged to counter this phenomenon.

EMPIRES

Empires, the second Screening & Discussion, reveals the repercussions of Big Tech takeovers across sectors, and their impact on every aspect of our daily lives. We will examine the commodification of our online activities, and start to assert our digital agency by imagining a future beyond Big Tech.

Participants: Lotje Beek (NL), Lukas Engelhardt (DE)
Moderated by: Miranda Mungai (UK)

The session begins with a screening of Center, Ring, Mall (Mateo Vega, 2023), a poetic short documentary exploring the progress promised by three types of urban infrastructure, and the potential to rethink these infrastructures as sites for possibility.

Join us for a discussion with Policy Officer at Bits of Freedom Lotje Beek and artist Lukas Engelhardt on the possibilities for an internet beyond Big Tech. Beek will look at how to prioritise the interests of the people over the interests of Big Tech, while Engelhardt will explore the potential of autonomous online and offline spaces. Together they will explore the possibility of an internet that exists outside of Big Tech, and consider ways we can come together to create alternative networked infrastructures.

DATA POINTS

Data Points, the third Screening and discussion, looks at the governmental and public institutions that are increasingly turning to algorithms. We will address our status as data points, and consider how we might reclaim our humanity in political discourse and decision-making.

Participants: Gwen van Eijk (NL), Renske Leijten (NL)
Moderated by: Miranda Mungai (UK)

The session begins with a screening of 3 Dialogues About the Future (Alina Manolache, 2022), a short documentary in which three pairs of robots take us through their learning process, revealing the limitations of their algorithmic visions.

After the film we will be talking with Gwen van Eijk, researcher and Policy Officer Technology and Human Rights at Amnesty International Netherlands, and Renske Leijten, former member of the Dutch parliament for the Socialist Party. We will examine the use of algorithms in the public sector, taking as our starting point Amnesty’s recent report on algorithmic bias, titled Xenophobic Machines.