POST-TRUTH & SOFT POWER
What does it mean to tell the truth? Who writes the myths and legends that have an impact on the construction of truth and how do these influence policy, technology and the media?
OPENING FILM: Psychometrics (2014) 3 min, Alan Warburton (GB)
MODERATOR: Edward Akintola Hubbard (GY/JM)
PANEL: Maranke Wieringa and Daniela van Geenen (Data School Utrecht) (NL), Georgina Voss (GB), Navine G. Khan-Dossos (GB) and Dries Verhoeven (NL)
NAVINE G. KHAN-DOSSOS
― SpeakerNavine G. Khan-Dossos (b. 1982, London) is a visual artist, based in Athens. Her interests include Orientalism in the digital realm, geometry as information and decoration, image calibration, and Aniconism in contemporary culture. Her site-specific work ‘Echo Chamber’ is currently on show at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven until November.
GEORGINA VOSS
― SpeakerGeorgina Voss is an anthropologist of technology and innovation systems, an internationally exhibiting artist, and a writer. She is a founding director of research studio Strange Telemetry, and Senior Lecturer and Subject Lead in Critical Studies and Design at the London College of Communication. She holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from SPRU, University of Sussex, and has held artistic residencies with RAMLAB, Port of Rotterdam; Autodesk’s Pier 9; and Lighthouse Arts, Brighton. Her writing has been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, and HOLO Magazine, and she is author of Stigma and the Shaping of the Pornography Industry (Routledge 2015).
ALAN WARBURTON
― ArtistAward-winning queer British artist working with software, hardware and computer-generated images. Commissioned, screened, exhibited and broadcast internationally at Ars Electronica, Austrian Film Museum, Laboral, HeK Basel, Photographers Gallery, London Underground, Southbank Centre, Channel 4, IKON Birmingham, Cornerhouse Manchester, QUAD Derby, Mark Moore L.A, Denver Digerati and Adult Swim. Five-time recipient of Vimeo Staff Pick, one million online views. Born in Stirling, Scotland in 1980. Studied Critical Fine Art Practice (2001 to 2004) at Brighton University, then Digital Effects at Escape Studios in 2007 before working in London’s animation and post-production industry until 2012. Currentlypart of the CSNI research group at London South Bank University.
DRIES VERHOEVEN
― ArtistDries Verhoeven (1976 Oosterhout, the Netherlands) is a theatre maker and visual artist. Dries Verhoeven creates installations, performances and happenings in museums, on location and in the public spaces of cities. On the boundary between performance and installation art, he critically evaluates the relationships between the spectators, performers, everyday reality and art. The spectator is directly involved in the work or given the opportunity to steer his or her own experiences. The work by Dries Verhoeven was shown in international festivals, such as Wiener Festwochen, LIFT (London) and Festival Transamérique (Montreal). He has received various prizes including the Mont Blanc Young Directors Award at the Salzburger Festspiele. He has worked with HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berljn, Battersea Arts Centre London, and the Münchner Kammerspiele, among others. Many works were seen at SPRING, and the former Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht. The Municipality of Utrecht and the Dutch Performing Arts Fund provide continuous support for Verhoeven’s studio. Dries Verhoeven resides in Berlin and Amsterdam.
MARANKE WIERINGA
― SpeakerMaranke Wieringa (1992) is a researcher at Utrecht Data School. Trained as a cultural studies scholar, and a media scholar, Maranke specializes in software studies, and scholarly data analysis. Her publications focus on interface analyses, and software practices. Research projects Maranke was involved in focused – among others – on news ecosystems, and social media use by politicians running for the Dutch House of Representatives.
DANIELA VAN GEENEN
― SpeakerDaniela van Geenen (1984) is a lecturer in data journalistic research and data visualization at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and a researcher at Utrecht Data School. Her work tackles the question of the scholarly conduct that the work with digital methods demands, challenged by the need to design accountable software tools. Daniela published on the role of social and technical actors on social media platforms, and their meaning for social and political practices such as public debate and cultural consumption.
EDWARD AKINTOLA HUBBARD
― ModeratorEdward Akintola (Akin) Hubbard’s scholarly interests are in pop culture, creative economies and ecologies, cultural entrepreneurship, creolization and creole expressive forms, gothic and carnivalesque aesthetics, gender and sexuality, cultural globalization, and the intersection of ethnographic and artistic practice. He holds a BA in Mass Communication from the University of the West Indies, an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University. Before coming to Universiteit Utrecht in 2015, he designed and taught courses at Harvard and New York Universities on media and globalization, avant-garde aesthetics, cinema, queer studies and ethnographic methods. His courses merge the study of cultural texts, mediascapes and ethnographic data, bringing perspectives on fine arts, music, film, media and literature into dialogue with cultural theory and globalization studies.