KW Digital:
Poetics of Encryption
Conference

Contemporary life plays out amid a profusion of technical systems whose inner workings are obscure—if not locked. There is no master key. And yet, this encrypted world must be borne, somehow. How does this register in culture? What moods, symbols, or narrative frames capture the aesthetics and politics of exclusion, occlusion, secrecy, and speculation concerning technology’s inside?

This conference at the historic silent movie venue Theater im Delphi explores the dark side of tech, bringing together artists and eminent media theorists for two days of lectures, performances, and screenings. Covering topics ranging from algorithmic governance to hallucination, artificial life, art, and (digital) afterlives, the presentations unfold counter-narratives to Big Tech’s claims regarding a new culture of transparency and openness—showcasing, instead, a poetics of encryption.

This gathering builds upon Nadim Samman’s recent book Poetics of Encryption: Art and the Technocene which surveys an imaginative landscape marked by Black Sites, Black Boxes, and Black Holes. These terms indicate how technical systems capture users; how they work in stealth; and how they distort cultural space-time.

Participants include Ramon Amaro, Orit Halpern, Nora N. Khan, Andrea Khôra, Most Dismal Swamp, Özgün Eylül İşcen, Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, Lorem, Trevor Paglen, Jon Rafman, and Ala Roushan.

Throughout these live presentations, the theater hosts an eighteen-channel listening station by Flipping the Coin, a Berlin-based dub-plate label for artist’s music.

Program

Friday, 27 October 23

2–2.30 pm

Registration

2.30–3.15 pm

Introduction:
Nadim Samman
Some Poetics of Encryption

3.45–4.30 pm

Lecture Performance:
Andrea Khôra & John C. Lily Avatar
Bolus: A Prompt Engineered K-Hole

5–5.45 pm

Lecture Performance:
Jon Rafman
Songs for Dead Malls: A Wanderer’s Lament

6–7 pm

Break

We regret to inform you that the presentation by Nora N. Khan cannot take place due to illness.

7–7:45 pm

Lecture Performance:
Most Dismal Swamp
Scraper, and the Folkless Lore of Ritualized Prediction

8–8.30 pm

New addition:
Live AV performance:
Lorem
Tesh

8.30 pm

Drinks

Throughout:

Musicinstallation:
Flipping the Coin
Dubplate Bar

Saturday, 28 October 23

1–1.30 pm

Entrance

1.30–2.15 pm

Lecture:
Ala Roushan
Alter Life: On Planetary Cohabitation

2.45–3.30 pm

Lecture Performance:
Trevor Paglen
Known Unknowns

4–4.45 pm

Lecture:
Dr. Bernard Dionysius Geohegan
Poetics of Rendering: How Graphics Encrypt Territories

4.45–5.30 pm

Break

6-6.45 pm

Lecture:
Dr. Özgün Eylül Îscen
Black Box & Oil as Imperial Allegories:
The Geopolitical Aesthetic of Gulf Futurism

We regret to inform you that the lecture by Dr. Ramon Amaro cannot take place due to unforeseen reasons.

7.15–8 pm

New addition:
Lecture:
Nora Al-Badri
Decolonizing Data: AI and Technoheritage

8.30–9.30 pm

Keynote Lecture:
Prof. Dr. Orit Halpern
Epistemologies of Ignorance

9.30 pm

Drinks

Throughout:

Musicinstallation:
Flipping the Coin
Dubplate Bar

Part of project: KW Digital Program

KW Institute for Contemporary Art sits at the intersection of virtual and material worlds, and the creative use of emerging technologies. We understand that the digital is not just online or onscreen—but increasingly conditions analog or ‘real’ space. For this reason, we consider the continuum between digital and physical domains to be a key issue in contemporary culture. Exploring, criticizing, or reinventing it through art is in the public interest.

The KW Digital Program showcased cutting-edge developments in line with this vision. The program did not place the virtual in a subordinate role to the physical (or vice versa). As everyday life becomes more saturated with tech, one’s experience straddles both. Addressing this condition, our program played out across various platforms—rather than being proprietary to any particular device or location.

Throughout, we trained a close eye on the relationship between culture and innovation. We were guided by dialogue with artists and scholars. We also pursued meaningful engagement with the tech sector—to better discover the implications of applied science, and intellectual frameworks for the future.

The program was curated by Dr. Nadim Samman, Curator Digital Sphere at KW.

Overview
2021–2024

KW Digital:
Poetics of Encryption
17 February – 26 May 2024

Poetics of Encryption
Conference
27/28 October 23

Poetics of Encryption
Book launch
28 April 23

KW on location:
Rachel Rossin
THE MAW OF
15–18 September 22
Tieranatomisches­ Theater

Open Secret
16 July – 31 December 21

The Last Museum
30 April – 6 June 21