Hi you,

I maybe shouldn’t share these images, which are merely mocks, but I’m too excited about the incredible work going on in Berlin, towards the ngbk* show The Influencing Machine. My work www.rabbitcottontoothcottonrabbit.com will be in the show, and in the associated publication.

The show is curated and made real by a working group consisting of Vladimir Cajkovac (curator), Kristina Kramer (translator and curator), Bettina Lehmann (curator), Sophie Macpherson (artist), Tahani Nadim (academic), and Neli Wagner (curator), plus all the good folk at ngbk.

Contributing artists include Anna Bromley, Kajsa Dahlberg, Egemen Demirci, Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni, Fokus Grupa, Eva & Franco Mattes, Mimi Onouha & Mother Cyborg, Sascha Pohflepp & Chris Woebken, Tactical Tech, Jane Topping, Sarah Tripp, Clement Valla, Laura Yuile

The exhibition seeks to address recent debates on the manipulations of socio-political processes (particularly elections) by bots, automated processes programmed to interfere in online networks and communications. We are interested in extending the available vocabulary and imagination for talking and thinking about the phenomenon of “political bots” in a two-fold manner: Firstly, by focusing on the socio-material dimensions of “bots” (infrastructures, labour processes, historical narratives) and secondly, by suggesting that technologies such as bots are always already political, that is, they are the articulation of historically specific interests and positions.  (Tahani Nadim)

The Influencing Machine runs: December 1^st  to January 20^th. We should, like, totally go.

See also: https://www.ngbk.de/de/show/31/the-influencing-machine

*The neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK), founded with a grass-roots structure in 1969, is today one of Germany’s most significant and largest art societies. The unique structure of the nGbK enables its members to directly influence its thematic orientation: exhibitions, interventions, research projects, event series and publications are developed in interdisciplinary project groups. The nGbK has established itself as an innovative venue for contemporary art and exhibition production which has left its mark on generations of curators, artists and creatives, and whose experimental exhibition concepts count as path-breaking. They have provided important impetus and continue to engage with relevant socio-political topics. Themes such as racism, National Socialism and urban politics are negotiated time and again, with a further focus placed on (post)migrant, (post)colonial and gender issues.