Bernhard SEREXHE / DE: Total control: towards a new humanity 
Art historian, independent international curator, author, certified expert for electronic and digital art 
In the framework of the Global Control keynote lectures HYBRID WARS AND GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE 
13/09/2018
RIXC / The National Library of Latvia

Whereas not so long ago digital forms of communication were seen as the hope for new forms of democratic participation, they have recently been converted and perverted into ideal door openers for the perfect control of billions of people. Being at the mercy of overwhelmingly powerful authorities of control and censorship has become the conditio humana, the basic condition of our culture and society. We have become accustomed to this situation, just as we are not deterred by the myriads of video cameras on the way to work or on our way back home. And this resignation paired with our love of ease and selfishness invites a new totalitarianism to install a new society with a pre-programmed divide between an elite of hyper-agile information users and a broad mass of interactive consumers restlessly zapping futile audio-visual products and services offered at dumping prices in order to control all of their practices and preferences. This re-coding of humanity will result in the worst of all totalitarianisms, that of a brave new world, in which everyone will be content, well-informed of everything he or she should know in order to play a useful role in society, but remaining ignorant of everything, which does not need to be known and consequently permanently amused to the point of complete satiety.

Dr. Bernhard Serexhe, Karlsruhe, has studied sociology, psychology, art history, philosophy, educational science; research restauration studies for the Monuments Historiques de France, publications on romanesque architecture, Ph. D. thesis on the architecture of the Cathedral Saint-Lazare in Autun, Burgundy (France), University of Freiburg (Germany); manifold exhibitions and publications on the impact of digital technologies on art and society since 1995 consultant for the Council of Europe, and for international NGOs and cultural institutions.

1994-97 curator of ZKM | Media Museum at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Germany)

1998-05 head of ZKM | Museum Communications department

2006-16 chief curator ZKM | Media Museum Karlsruhe

Since 1998 lecturer at State Academy of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, and Universities of Berne, Basel and Karlsruhe, CAFA Beijing, 2008-12 professor for aesthetics and media theory at Istanbul BILGI-University.

2010-14 director of European Unions Research Project: www.digitalartconservation.org

Since 2016 independent international curator and certified expert for electronic and digital art; lecturer for the conservation and curation of media art at the University of Berne, Switzerland.