Disruption Network Lab’s 33th conference: HACKING ALIENATION: Migrant Power, Art & Tech

HACKING ALIENATION: Migrant Power, Art & Tech explores how art and technology can enhance the political agency of those who lack citizenship rights and experience systemic alienation due to war, political conflict or other sources of oppression.

About the conference:
Migrant groups and individuals are at the forefront of facing racism, oppression, and discrimination. We can only overcome these injustices by adopting innovative strategies of systematic change that, rather than policing and maintaining borders of exclusion, subvert them and create pathways of solidarity and accountability. Together with activists, artists, advocates, researchers and developers with a migration background, this conference discusses how technology and media can be used to imagine future strategies that urge community building rather than enforcing a state of integration. The artistic approach will play a central role, contributing to the introduction and generation of new tools of awareness and experimentation, as well as providing literacy in the context of big data, machine learning and smart technologies.

The two-day event develops a range of technological and artistic interventions to participate in shaping cities and digital environments in a self-determined manner. The conference will promote cross-sectoral discussions and tools for direct participation, both online and offline, reimagining the parameters of migration beyond national affiliation.

The conference will feature a keynote speech, two trans-disciplinary panel discussions (21 September) and a workshop (22 September). The sessions will cover: Technological and artistic interventions to participate in the making of our cities and digital environments; How art, media and technology can enhance the political agency of those disenfranchised by forced migration; The politics of surveillance, digital ‘inclusion’ and its subversion; Agency and self-determination between media, art and protest.

Anna Titovets [Intektra], an interdisciplinary artist, curator and researcher at the intersection of art, tech-nology and society, will focus on practical survivalist strategies, community-building approaches, and challenges in the process of fighting for social equality, searching for a sense of (digital) belonging, reshaping identity, and protecting social rights with digital means and technologies.

In migration contexts, digital technologies and big data collection are too often programmed to be used for tracking, surveillance, and profiling. allapopp, Milagros Miceli, Marwa Fatafta and Walid El-Houri will talk about the importance of decolonising AI. They will discuss the power asymmetries embedded in the design, production and development of machine learning, digital surveillance, data generation and labelling.

Stella Nyanzi, Nyima Jadama, Moro Yapha and Mo.R. will present individual stories of empowerment and agency through the conscious use of media in the struggle for equal rights and justice for all, drawing on their direct experiences as activists, human rights advocates, writers and migrants in Germany.

Finally, in their imaginatory workshop, allapopp and Dinara Rasuleva address from a situated perspective the need to deconstruct and shift the rather homogeneous dominant narratives of technological futures as acts of self-empowerment and possibilities for political participation and change.

This conference builds on the interdisciplinary discussions and new insights generated by previous Disruption Network Lab conferences, such as Data Cities, which focused on the role of AI, human rights and big data in smart cities; Borders of Fear, which examined the role of technology and surveillance in policing national borders; and Citizens of Evidence, which explored the investigative impact of grassroots communities and citizens to expose injustice, corruption and power asymmetries.

Full Programme

Keynote: My Name Is “Subject to Immigration Control”
Anna Titovets Intektra (Artist, Researcher and Curator, RU/PT). Moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE).

Panel: Decolonising AI. 
With allapopp (Digital Media and Performance Artist), Milagros Miceli (Sociologist and Computer Scientist, DAIR Institute, AR/DE), Marwa Fatafta (Researcher, Policy Analyst and Digital Rights Expert, PS/DE). Moderated by Walid El-Houri (Researcher and Editor, LBN/DE).

Panel: Subverting Alienation
With Moro Yapha (Migration and Human Rights Advocate, GM/DE), Stella Nyanzi (Activist, Poet and Digital Rights Defender, UG/DE), Nyima Jadama (Activist & Moderator, GM/DE). Moderated by Mo R. (Project Lead, Tactical Tech, EG/US/DE).

Image: Allipopp by Sarah Ama Duah