Sessions at Transmediale 2k + 12 on Friday 3rd February

Panel with Jacob Appelbaum (us), Gabriella Coleman (us), Dana Buchzik (de) and anonymous
Moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli (it/de)
Chaired by Krystian Woznicki (de/pl)

In the book Pranks! (Re/Search, 1987), V. Vale and Andrea Juno pointed out that pranks, tricks and ludicrous actions are functional to express a continual poetic renewal, using the elements of surprise, irony and social criticism. Since that time the strategy of anonymity, as the critique of a rigid identity, and the creation of a multi-use philosophy of sharing, has been functional in redefining art practice through disruptive interventions, as well as served as a tool to reflect on the meaning of authority. Today the strategy of anonymity is still a vehicle to question the institutional media system and has often plunged it into crises by exposing its bugs and highlighting its vulnerability. But, mixing up with contemporary social media culture, being anonymous means to produce a new aesthetics – new linguistic codes – where poetic images, disruptive strategies (such as trolling and DDoSing) intertwine with multiple possibilities for lulz and pleasure. Is anonymity a tool for distributed and viral political struggle or is it the endless trick of an intangible crowd of pranksters?

To face the current economical crisis means to question dualistic perspectives such as capitalism vs anti-capitalism as well as to imagine a sustainable network of values in which accumulation of growth and precarity are substituted by a grassroots ecology of sharing built on an increasing capacity for sociability. This event presents two sets of projects which question the notion of capitalism through direct intervention and collective reflections proposing an exodus from proprietary money and trade regulation through distributed commons and practices of social networking.

In Part 1: What Capitalism?
Steve Lambert (us) and Daniel Garcia Andujar (es) show how one can critique the concept of capitalism in times of crisis through direct interventions and ludic practices. Elanor Colleoni (it/dk) will act as respondent.

In Part 2: Hacking Finance, Rethinking Trade
presentations by Jaromil (it/nl), Kate Rich (uk) and Shintaro Miyazaki (jp/de) carve out trade routes across business, art and social interaction, looking beyond financial catastrophes towards a new ecology of money. Elanor Colleoni will continue to be present as respondent.