Tools and techniques to restore autonomy in a software-driven world
In the last twenty years, software has made the Internet possible, revived smartphones and, in the words of one of the directors of large technology companies, enabled a world that is “more open and connected.” However, the software now used by billions of people around the world every day contained the capitalist ideologies of those who create it. Today’s software, derived from the entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley in the United States, obsessed with growth, wants what its creators want: more. This desire is fundamental as it determines how the software works, what it does and what it (doesn’t) enable. The result is a global population that is now dependent on software platforms that deliberately activate a “desire for more” in users – a need that software meets with a number of “likes”, algorithmic resources and endless notifications, all at the service of what big technology companies are striving to achieve the most: more users, more data and more profit.
Although occasional calls to delete a Facebook profile (#deletefacebook) or otherwise disconnect from online platforms occasionally attract attention and media, only a few (can) really disconnect. An alternative approach is an artistic strategy of “recomposing software” or treating existing websites and other systems not as fixed spaces of consumption and prescribed interaction, but as fluid spaces of manipulation and experimentation. This workshop, with a series of exercises for observing software and web implementation, presents methods, tools, and recomposition techniques that anyone can use to regain control of the software systems they use every day.
Organization: Aksioma within the konS
The aim of the workshop
Participants develop
- critical look at APIs: how do they work, why, who benefits?
- experience in discovering when and how software affects us
- understanding of “software recomposition” methods
- a set of skills / tools / techniques to regain competence in large technology platforms
Duration
Duration 3 hours
Technology / knowledge requirements
No coding knowledge or other special experience is required to participate.
Application form: https://forms.gle/QRgmQYCpBKJjYBQR8
Website: https://aksioma.org/grosser.workshop