Nervous Systems /anglais: Quantified Life and the Social Question - Softcover

Beyond contemporary disclosures about mass surveillance by intelligence services, the promises inherent in "big data" determine discourses about future innovations and systems of classification in government and industry, which aim to increasingly transform political and systemic questions into those of technological management. The promises of participation and "digital democracy" stand in contrast to new forms of cybernetic control and the modulation of social behaviour on an unprecedented scale. The countless sensors of our ubiquitous digital and technological infrastructures have united the state, industry, body, and technology into ever more complex "nervous systems." This nervousness is revealed in particular where relationships of power and participation come to the fore, namely in the "social question." The publication assembles a combination of contemporary art -- complemented by contributions from experts, theorists, and researchers, presenting contextualized historical documents, artefacts, and other objects. Nervous Systems appeared in conjunction with the exhibition at HKW Berlin (February to April 2016).

What happens when our individual and collective actions are anticipated and monetized by algorithmic forecasts? What remains of the world if interpreted for us by machines? Cutting-edge Berlin-based think tank HKW engages this highly charged conversation on the replacement of human choices and responses by data processing, which itself is shaped by politics and the desire for control as well as technological advances. Divided into four sections, this pocket-sized publication is overflowing with images, essays, installation shots and a description of the work in the accompanying exhibition. Thirty artworks and installations by artists and digital research collectives, such as Vito Acconci, Ai Weiwei, On Kawara, Harun Farocki and RYBN.ORG, tracing the inversions that mark the relationship between man and machine, are complemented by essays by media theorists and digital historians, contextualized historical documents, artifacts and other objects. Co-curated by Worldwide Tactical Tech, a collective of practitioners, activists and technologists who work to demystify the politics of data within an international context.