Sanela Jahić’s project investigates how socially-applied technological tools are not only directly intertwined with unresolved injustices of our current system, but actually accelerate a transition towards authoritarianism that is present in the technology industry itself, in the politics of various countries and institutions, and in the rise of far-right political movements.
The artist examines the political resonances of AI as it offers greater social efficiency through acts of separation and segregation. The targets of the extensive digital control and algorithmic optimization are typically “low-rights environments,” where expectations of political responsibility and transparency are low. These sites are used for the introduction of process automation and predictive analytics, amplifying vulnerabilities stemming from long-standing social policies, increasing neoliberal inequalities, and accelerating different dimensions of necropolitics.
To counteract this, collective practices of self-organization are presented, where positions of social and political disadvantage give rise to solidarity across differences and beyond models of algorithmic governance.
Author: Sanela Jahić
Technical director: Andrej Primožič
Author of the essay ‘No to AI, Yes to a Non-fascist Apparatus’: Dan McQuillan
Visual image and graphic design: Jaka Neon
3D animation: Toni Mlakar
Audio post-production: Julij Zornik
Image post-production: Art Rebel 9
Thanks: Magda Malinowska, Agnieszka Mróz, Inicjatywa Pracownicza, Matti, Lenart J. Kučić, Extinction Rebellion, Jacqueline Serrato / South Side Weekly, Hedi Tounsi
Production of the exhibition: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana | konS ≡ Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art
Photo: Katja Goljat, Matjaž Rušt/arhiv konS
CV
Sanela Jahić (1980, Kranj) graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana in 2008, and received her master’s degree in 2010 in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies from the Bauhaus University in Weimar. Jahić is an intermedia artist, who constructs visual and technologically supported kinetic objects and installations. Her artistic practice often involves collaboration with specialists for mechanical engineering, automation, software and electronics. She lives and works in Škofja Loka. Jahić has exhibited her work in numerous shows in Slovenia and abroad.