GLOBAL CONTROL AND CENSORSHIP 
13/09/2018 – 21/10/2018
RIXC / the National Library of Latvia

Marking the centennial anniversary of independent Latvia and Baltic countries, the exhibition took up the call by becoming a space for artistic interventions and hot-button conversations addressing the complexity and future of digital society, especially with regards to ubiquitous surveillance and data privacy.

Knowledge is power. And power is possessed above all by whoever controls the flow of information.

The digitization of all areas of life and their networking in the infosphere have connected all people to each other all over the world. Billions of all kinds of content and data are generated every day and transmitted across the globe. Even before it reaches the recipients, massive amounts of our data are intercepted by private companies and government services, checked, and then used for their purposes.

Globally operating commercial enterprises derive huge profits from data mining and targeted marketing, which allows them to exploit the individual and social dependance of their users. And with the specious argument of national security government agencies flagrantly pursue the goal of perfecting and massively expanding their collecting of data.

Has being at the mercy of overwhelmingly powerful authorities of control and censorship already become the conditio humana, the basic condition of our culture? In the currently unfolding climate of suspicion it is not unlikely that citizens will react with resignation, self-censorship, and conformity, or even silent acquiescence in the face of this ubiquitous surveillance.    

The exhibition aimed to expand public debate about the ever-present surveillance and censorship methods in Latvia, briefly referring to its past and mostly depicting its present and future in the context of planetary scale control and surveillance mechanisms based on computation.

Curators: Bernhard SEREXHE and Lívia NOLASCO-RÓZSÁS.

Artists: Artist Collective “3/8” (LV), aaajiao (CN), Hamra ABBAS (KW / US), Selma ALAÇAM (DE), Halil ALTINDERE (TR), Daniel G. ANDÚJAR (ES), Zach BLAS (US / GB), Osman BOZKURT (TR), James BRIDLE (GB / GR), Alice CAVOUKDJIAN dite GALLI (FR / DE), Hasan ELAHI (BD / US), Finger Pointing Worker + Kota TAKEUCHI (JP), Kaspars GROŠEVS (LV), Michael GRUDZIECKI (PL / DE), KIT-KASTEL (DE), Frédéric KRAUKE (DE), Marc LEE (CH), Virginia MASTROGIANNAKI (GR), Erik MÁTRAI (HU), Ruben PATER (NL), Dan PERJOVSCHI (RO), Ma QIUSHA (CN), Pēters RIEKSTIŅŠ (LV), Oliver RESSLER (AT), Bernhard SEREXHE (DE), Christian SIEVERS (DE), Alex WENGER (CH / DE) & Max-Gerd RETZLAFF (DE).

http://globalcontrol.rixc.org/ 

More photo archive about the exhibition:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rixcriga/albums/72157701075315254 https://www.flickr.com/photos/rixcriga/albums/72157702822168215

 

Hybrid war, fake-news, post-trough, surveillance, immersion and artificial intelligence – these are just a few of critical topics that will be discussed and explored in this year’s RIXC Festival through a series of public keynotes, artistic interventions, thematic panel presentations, open public discussions, performances, and workshops. The special event is the Global Control and Censorship exhibition that aims to expand the public debate about ever-present surveillance and censorship methods. The main festival events will take place from September 13 – 15, 2018, in the National Library of Latvia, the exhibition will be open until October 21, 2018.

Marking the centennial anniversary of independent Latvia and Baltic countries, this year’s festival takes up the call by becoming a space for artistic interventions and hot-button conversations addressing the complexity and future of digital society, especially with regards to ubiquitous surveillance and data privacy.

The anniversary festival conference titled GLOBAL CONTROL, investigates issues from three main perspectives:

 

Hybrid Wars and Post-Truth

The first, “hybrid war”, is particularly relevant in the context of the Baltic states independence celebration year, when continuous “post-truth” propaganda in media and tensions around military training in this region are on the rise. We also discuss the issue of “fake news”, its consequences on global politics, and its impacts on individual nations.

 

Surveillance and Immersion

The second perspective deals with “surveillance and immersion”; as we all are under surveillance, we need to become aware of both the enormous scale of “watching”, as well as the potential “depth” of watching due to the development of immersive technologies.

 

The Next Big Privacy

The third, concerns “the next big privacy” issue, discussed from a “data politics” perspective – What is the future of our social media? How can we feel safe about our data we publish on the internet today?, and How to maintain trust with the next generation?

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