Non-Aligned Networks
24th May – 28th June 2019
Valletta Contemporary
Curated by Yasemin Keskintepe
DISNOVATION
EGOR KRAFT
SHAWN MAXIMO
NTU
YURI PATTISON
TABITA REZAIRE
MIAO YING
free entry
Opening Friday 24th May 7.30pm
_Walking tour Friday 24th May 6.30pm_
On May 24th, Valletta Contemporary art gallery inaugurates a new collective exhibit.
The Internet has become a boundless repository of information enabling a global exchange of data. Constructed upon an infrastructure of online platforms, fibre optic cables and data centres, it ushered in the age of planetary scale computation. The design of wireless communication networks became crucial for the way information is controlled. Whereas the idea behind the founding of the Internet was to imagine a space of unrestricted access to information, of civic debate and social inclusion, the actual implementation turned out quite differently.
Tabita Rezaire, Premium Connect, 2017
The control over data and networks seems to have become a determining factor of governmentality, considering the ongoing arms race of data accumulation and analytics. News of privacy breaches, censorship and surveillance have exposed the power struggles that are exercised by governments and corporations alike. Hence, the design of information technology extends not just to how political space is constructed but also to how the content of the political as a domain of human action and ethics is created.
This exhibition explores the complexities of the Internet as a political space and the dynamics of governing information online. Considering that information technologies have become instrumental in advancing some of the greatest challenges we are facing today – the deterioration of freedom of expression leading to the weakening of democratic foundations; the dissociation of publics furthering populist movements and authoritarianism; as well as large scale securitisation – there is an urgent need to create new points of entry and accessibility.
Shawn Maximo, easyDarkCafe, 2019
Now Is Just Right Now, Egor Kraft
