an austin-based reading group series at the welcome to my homepage residency.
big brother spies on you, your phone is a snitch! lets learn how can we use the all-seeing-illuminati technological eye against itself. in this second reading group, we will focus on "surveillance and agency." building upon our understanding of the internet and its infrastructure, we will learn about hacking-in and hacking-out of social media and wired systems. how can turn our paranoia to towards em-power-ment instead of e-strange-ment? this is a space to think creatively about e-visibility and vulnerability.
we read excerpts from wendy chun's privacy and control, power and paranoia in the age of fiber optics, alexander galloway and eugene thacker's the exploit: a theory of networks, tim wu's network neutrality, broadband discrimination, finn brunton and helen nissenbaum's obfuscation, a user’s guide for privacy and protest.
do you know how many wires memes travel in order to entertain you? the internet and its infrastructure are not understood by the public. with the aid of our ignorance, policy-makers can make decisions on our behalf. please join hiba ali in the first reading focused on "fiber optics, gender and race." our identities are (dis)placed across the internet, light is piped through wires to created a sense of our url everyday. what would an internet free and open to the public look like? this is a space to imagine and implement alternative visions.
we read excerpts from lisa nakamura's race after the internet, jeff hecht's cities of light, shane greenstein's how the internet became commercial - innovation, privatization, and the birth of a new network, and fpi's feminist principles of the internet.
as part of the welcome to my homepage residency, i made an activist-centered website collating resources and education regarding net neutrality. i conducted two reading groups featuring the themes of "race, gender and fiber optics" and "surveillance and agency" at the museum of human achievement in austin, tx and presented my work as well as the readings as an installation at the conclusion of the residency.