[spectre] Manpowertop a workshop by Network Diagnostic

[Marc.garrett]

Sorry for any cross posting...

Manpowertop a workshop by Network Diagnostics
http://www.furtherfield.org/programmes/event/manpowertop

BOOKING ESSENTIAL - Limited places available for this FREE workshop
BOOK HERE - https://t.co/nKbaPYnYU2

As demonstrated by the works in the NEW WORLD ORDER exhibition at Furtherfield Gallery, blockchain technologies and cultures display a remarkable capacity to embody the interests of diametrically opposed political ideologies. Manpowertop looks more widely at the subject of Silicon Valley companies and how their promotional media envisions "the future" of their technology's role in society.

The recent publication of Mark Zuckerberg’s open letter, titled Building Global Community, has drawn debates about the accelerationist politics of Silicon Valley into the public sphere once again. The seductive message of the manifesto itself is unsurprising, and is typical of the glossy promotional media released by other tech companies: We are told that new technologies can facilitate greater social inclusion, foster democratic grassroots political movements, and allow us to be more productive in our labour and leisure. While such media are often renderings of some notional “future” existence, what might they reveal about the ways we delimit our understanding of the present? Additionally, what would have to happen between “now” and “then” for these visions to be fully realised?

Manpowertop is a workshop that takes these questions as a starting point, challenging participants to diagnose the power relations in these branded visions of the future. Participants will adopt “troubleshooting” as a critical framework for enquiry, and produce diagrammatic readings of these speculative technologies, the networks they interlink with, and their associated politics of usership. In doing so, we will collectively identify what is left out of these visions, and explore how these omissions might offer an insight into the power relations that exist between users and technological platforms in the present.

Part of the NEW WORLD ORDER exhibition at Furtherfield Gallery
http://www.furtherfield.org/programmes/exhibition/new-world-order

In partnership with Antiuniversity Now 2017
http://www.antiuniversity.org/

Marc Garrett

Co-Founder, Co-Director and main editor of Furtherfield.
Art, technology and social change, since 1996
http://www.furtherfield.org

Furtherfield Gallery & Commons in the park

Finsbury Park, London N4 2NQhttp://www.furtherfield.org/gallery
Currently writing a PhD at Birkbeck University, London
https://birkbeck.academia.edu/MarcGarrett

Curating, Touring Exhibition
Monsters of the Machine:Frankenstein in the 21st Century
At Laboral, Spain until Sept 2017 http://bit.ly/2eGdpw1
Visiting other countries soon...

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