An Oral History of the Internet

An Oral History of the Internet logo

A series of video conversations.

The word Cyberpunk was coined in 1980 by Bruce Bethke, cyberspace came 1982 by William Gibson. 40 years later we think it is time to talk about how it felt when it all started: The promise of an utopian new age that would come through digital culture and the internet.

And now that we are living in that cyberspace with billions of people connected, what is left of it? What is there beyond our disillusionment, the culture of vanity and harassment, surveillance capitalism, cultural dominance, and precarious labour?

We want to work on something like an ‘Oral history of the Internet’. So we invited pioneers, artists, leading voices to tell us their story of the Net.

See the conversations with Douglas Rushkoff, Ruth Catlow, Bruce Sterling & Jasmina Tešanović, Ricardo Dominguez, Geert Lovink, Mendi & Keith Obadike, Jane Metcalfe, JR Carpenter, and more to come:

https://www.nyuad-artgallery.org/en_US/resources/watch/an-oral-history-of-the-internet/

This program is initiated and hosted by Heather Dewey-Hagborg and myself, and sponsored by The NYUAD Art Gallery and the NYUAD Institute.

Data Art: Beyond Infographics

When it comes to data visualizations, we usually think of infographics. But besides data as storytelling, journalism, and dashboards, data has grown into a medium for expression for a large spectrum of creative output.

Contemporary artists are still struggling to find the language for a new contemporary output and practice in the post-Internet genre. Artistic expression within the digital arts has brought forward critical examination of technology and its impact on society, such as surveillance and self-determination, and has often collaged quotations of all aspects of media and consumerism, questioning art market concepts like authorship and intellectual property rights, in mediums ranging from video, software, and websites to hardware, kinetic machines, and robotics. Parametric or generative art is being created from algorithms without direct human intervention.

Come to my session at tdwi Conference Munich, Wednesday June 27th, 0900h.

tdwi Munich 2018

United Nations: “We could replace the services offered by banks with blockchain.”

The most exciting work we have done so far at Datarella was to build and set up a blockchain-based payment system for the United Nations’ World Food Programme (as described earlier here: Blockchain-based accounting and payment system ).

Now the UN is upping the stakes: “We felt we could replace the services offered by banks with blockchain.” so WFP director Robert Opp. This quote is directly connected with the Buildingblocks system that we developed for the world’s largest help organization.

The numbers are far exceeding what even we blockchain enthusiasts would have thought to be possible: 98% reduction in transaction costs and big increase in transparency by facilitating easy auditing.

The huge success of the Buildingblocks project motivates us to go one step further – this is why we build RAAY, a full scale blockchain platform to bring financial services to the billions of unbanked people of the world: https://raay.money/

Read more about our work in this nice article on Bloomberg.

Mentoring Blockchain Projects at #FCBayernHackDays January 19th – 22nd, 2018

Mentoring blockchain projects at the Hackathon for FC Bayern:

Thinking of fan experiences and services in a new way. Testing and applying innovative and new technologies within and outside the stadium. Bringing the emotional connection of our club to life even more through technology and digital infrastructure. Learning from each other and creating new things together.
For the first time, FC Bayern Munich will host, together with its fans, partners, leading experts, start-ups and students from all over the world, the #FCBayernHackDays to learn together, face new challenges and to research new innovative possibilities.

hackdays.fcbayern.com