The Research Center for Proxy Politics aims to explore and reflect upon the nature of medial networks and their actors, that is, machines and things as well as humans. The proxy, a decoy or surrogate, is today often used to designate a computer server acting as an intermediary for requests from clients. Originating in the Latin procurator, an agent representing others in a court of law, proxies are now emblematic of a post-representational political age, one increasingly populated by bot militias, puppet states, ghostwriters, and communication relays. During the period of the project (September 2014 to August 2017) the center will host a series of workshops at the Universität der Künste, Berlin, revolving around a wide range of relevant topics including the politics of digital networks, the political economy of crypto-currencies, the genealogy of networked thought, the mediality of physical landscapes and strategies of opacity. The center will also conduct material, experimental, investigations into the conception and construction of alternative networks, or alternets.
RCPP RCPP RCPP @ AUTO ITALIA

(Workshop) 07/02 2017  2 - 5 pm @ Hardenbergstr. 33, Raum 115
 

Introduction to Biosurveillance

Heather Dewey-Hagborg

How much can you learn about a stranger from a stray cigarette butt?

What does (and doesn’t) your DNA reveal? How are emerging genetic technologies reinforcing age old stereotypes and what can we do to subvert them?

In this workshop we will take a tour of DIY biotech including DNA extraction, phenotyping, and concoction of our own genetic obfuscation spray. We will explore the present and future of biological surveillance and discuss what you can do to resist it.

Heather’s Homepage

Sci-Fi Crime Drama by Heather Dewey-Hagborg, published in The New Inquiry, July 2015

 

 

RCPP RCPP RCPP @ AUTO ITALIA