Recoding humanity. Digital Challenges for Society, a talk by Dr. Bernhard Serexhe

Whereas not so long ago digital forms of communication were seen as the hope for new forms of democratic participation, they have recently been converted into ideal instruments for the governance of people. We have become accustomed to this situation, just as we are not deterred by the myriads of video cameras on the way to work or on our way back home. This resignation paired with our love of ease and selfishness invites not only the private sector to install a new society with a pre-programmed divide between an elite of hyper-agile information users and a broad mass of interactive consumers restlessly zapping futile audio-visual products and services offered at dumping prices in order to guide their practices and preferences. This re-coding of humanity has the potential to result in a society, in which everyone will be content, well-informed of everything he or she should know in order to play a useful role in society, but remaining  ignorant of everything, which does not need to be known and consequently permanently amused to the point of complete satiety.

Time and Place: Friday, 2nd November 2018 at 10:40, at FFB 05

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Dr. Bernhard Serexhe – Art historian, author, independent international curator, certified expert for electronic and digital art. He studied sociology, psychology, educational science and art history, Ph. D. on the Cathedral Saint-Lazare in Autun, Burgundy (France), consultant for the Council of Europe, 1994-97 co-founder and curator of ZKM | Media Museum, 1998-05 head of ZKM | Museum Communications, 2006-16 chief curator of ZKM | Media Museum Karlsruhe,  since 1998 lecturer media art and museology at the State Academy of Fine Arts St. Petersburg and the Universities of Berne, Basel and Karlsruhe, 2008-12 professor for aesthetics and media theory at Istanbul BILGI-University, since 2010 director of the EU Research Project www.digitalartconservation.org, since 2016 independent curator and certified expert for electronic and digital art; since 2016 ongoing international exhibitions, consulting for international art institutions, and expertise on the preservation of digital media art.

Photo credit: https://zkm.de/en/person/bernhard-serexhe