Laura Poitras, et al.: Astro Noise: A Survival Guide for Living Under Total Surveillance (2016)

“The filmmaker, artist, and journalist Laura Poitras has explored the themes of mass surveillance, “war on terror,” drone program, Guantánamo, and torture in her work for more than ten years. For this volume, Poitras has invited authors ranging from artists and novelists to technologists and academics to respond to the modern-day state of mass surveillance. Some contributors worked directly with Poitras and the archive of documents leaked by Snowden; others contributed fictional reinterpretations of spycraft. The result is a “how-to” guide for living in a society that collects extraordinary amounts of information on individuals. Questioning the role of surveillance and advocating for collective privacy are central tennets for Poitras, who has long engaged with and supported free-software technologists.”

Contributions by Ai Weiwei, Jacob Appelbaum, Lakhdar Boumediene, Kate Crawford, Alex Danchev, Cory Doctorow, Dave Eggers, Jill Magid, Trevor Paglen, Edward Snowden, and Hito Steyerl.

With an Introduction by Jay Sanders
Publisher Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2016
ISBN 9780300217650, 030021765X
241 pages
via i_d_rather_be_no_one

Review: Bernard E. Harcourt (Critical Inquiry).

Exhibition
Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (17 MB)

Timothy Druckrey (ed.): Ars Electronica: Facing the Future: A Survey of Two Decades (1999)

“For the past two decades the Austrian-based Ars Electronica, Festival for Art, Technology, and Society has played a pivotal role in the development of electronic media. Linking artistic practice and critical theory, the annual festival and symposium bring together scientists, philosophers, sociologists, and artists in an ongoing discourse on the effects of digital media on creativity—and on culture itself.

Drawing on the resources of Ars Electronica’s publications and archives, this anthology collects the essential works that form the core of a contemporary art long dismissed as too technical or inaccessible. The book includes a critical introduction, full bibliography, and texts and artworks from the key figures in the field.

Among the many contributors are Robert Adrian, Roy Ascott, Jean Baudrillard, Heidi Grundmann, Donna Haraway, Kathy Huffman, Friedrich Kittler, Knowbotic Research, Myron Kruger, Laurent Migonneau, Sadie Plant, Florian Rötzer, Paul Sermon, Carl Sims, Christa Sommerer, Woody Vasulka, Paul Virilio, Peter Weibel, and Gene Youngblood.”

Publisher MIT Press, 1999
Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice series, 1
ISBN 0262041766, 9780262041768
449 pages
via Ars Electronica

Reviews: Beryl Graham (Convergence, 2000), Rhizome (2000), Stephen Wilson (Leonardo, 2001), Yvonne Spielmann (Leonardo, 2001), Matthew Griffin (PAJ, 2002).

WorldCat

PDF, PDF (41 MB)

Hito Steyerl: Duty-Free Art (2015) [Spanish/English]

This catalogue contains “a conversation between Hito Steyerl and João Fernandes, curator of the exhibition, an essay by Carles Guerra and Steyerl herself. Steyerl approaches current themes in her work, for instance the impact the proliferation of images and the use of the Internet and technology have on our lives. She uses these issues as a starting point for developing, not just through her video pieces but also through writing and essays, critical work about control, surveillance and militarisation, migration, cultural globalisation, feminism and political imagery, questions she believes have the capacity to create realities.”

Publisher Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2015
ISBN 9788480265300
173 pages

Exhibition
Publisher
WorldCat

PDF, PDF (17 MB)