Podcast
A short series exploring what Digital Fatalism means, as a concept and ideology in relation to algorithmic systems and the technosocial. Hosted by artist K.Woods (Kin, cell_less), these episodes feature a range of international artists and researchers who have dedicated a part of their practice or research to exploring digital networks, critical data practices, surveillance and tracking technologies, algorithms, digital media and/or digital literacy.
These episodes are also available on Podbean and Apple Podcasts.
In this opening episode, I talk with Geert Lovink, the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, media theorist, internet critic and author of many books including Uncanny Networks, Dark Fibre, and Social Media Abyss among others.
In the second episode, I talk to Georgina Voss, an internationally-exhibiting artist and writer whose practice spans performance, multimedia installation, text, and research-intensive projects. Originally trained in anthropology and industrial economics, her work explores the politics and presence of large-scale industrial and technological systems. She co-founded and led Supra Systems Studio and Strange Telemetry. Her latest book Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World has just been published by Verso.
Here, I talk with Thomas Blomseth Christiansen whose work I came across at an exhibition by FutureEverything in collaboration with Science Gallery London. He is part of Totti Labs in Denmark and is a contributor to the Quantified Self community, an international community who are makers and users of self-tracking tools and the proponents of the idea that you can pursue a kind of self-knowledge through numbers.
An episode featuring Dr Ola Michalec, Dr Andrés Domínguez and Dr Peter Winter who lead a project called Against Digital Fatalism with Bristol Digital Futures Institute at the University of Bristol and the Alan Turing Institute. This episode brings a special focus to technology hype, and explores how artists are creatively pushing back against the futures that technology companies outline for us. Their project is positioned as a critical digital literacy initiative which began in 2023 with a call for artists to take part in a 6-month residency. The artists were Kate Colley, Wen Li, and George Simms.