2023 · SMART PRISONS · ARTIVISM · ORGANISED CRIME
2022 · The Kill Cloud · Transitioning · Madness
2021 · Behind The Mask · Powers of Truth · whistleblowing for change
2020 · EVICTED BY GREED · DATA CITIES · Borders of Fear · Hate News VS Free Speech
2019 · Dark Havens · AI Traps · Citizens of Evidence · Activation
2018 · Hate News · Infiltration
2017 · Prisoners of Dissent · Terror Feeds
2016 · Bots · Deep Cables · Ignorance · Truth Tellers
2015 · Drones · Cyborg · A Game of You · Samizdata · Porntubes · Stunts
2023: Tactics of Empowerment
SMART PRISONS: Tracking, Monitoring & Control #DNL29 · March 2023
Investigating systems of surveillance around prisons, detention centres and borders, and the effects of technological violence and discrimination directed at migrants, activists, and dissidents in Europe and worldwide.
ARTIVISM: The Art of Subverting Power #DNL30 · June 2023
How can art and activism be combined to tackle burning social issues, surveillance, unethical corporations and corrupt governments?
2022: Tactics of Empowerment
THE KILL CLOUD: Networked Warfare, Drones & AI #DNL26 · March 2022
Challenging AI powered global military programmes & targeted killings through civic action and whistleblowing
TRANSITIONING: Art, Politics & Technologies of Gender Change #DNL27 · June 2022
Exploring political, medical, and artistic practices of becoming the gender you feel on the inside.
MADNESS: Fighting for Justice in Mental health #DNL28 · November 2023
What does it mean to have a just mental health care system and who has access to it? Who decides who is labelled as mad?
2021: Tactics of Empowerment
BEHIND THE MASK: Whistleblowing During the Pandemic #DNL23 · March 2021
Whistleblowers, human rights advocates, journalists, activists, artists, lawyers and researchers denouncing abuses and wrongdoing in the course of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
POWERS OF TRUTH: China, Tech, Art & Resistance #DNL24 · October 2021
What power structures and technologies are framing the dominant narratives about China? Who is benefitting and who is resisting?
WHISTLEBLOWING FOR CHANGE: Exposing Systems of Power & Injustice #DNL25 · October 2021
What are the wider effects of whistleblowing as an act of dissent on politics, society, and the arts?
2020: Tactics of Empowerment / Hate News vs. Free Speech
EVICTED BY GREED: Global Finance, Housing & Resistance #DNL19 · May 2020
Uncovering how ghostly shell companies and real estate speculation evict real people from their homes – and what to do about it.
DATA CITIES: Smart Technologies, Tracking & Human Rights #DNL21 · Sept 2020
Investigating future smart cities and how tracking & surveillance impact us all.
BORDERS OF FEAR: Migration, Security & Control #DNL21 · Nov 2020
Journalists, activists, advocates, lawyers, researchers and critical thinkers unveil the persecution, control, and cultural violence around borders & migration.
HATE NEWS vs FREE SPEECH: Polarisation & Pluralism in Georgian Media · Dec 2020
Journalists, activists and media experts from Georgia and Germany discuss strategies to fight misinformation, hate speech and social network manipulation and to strengthen freedom of speech.
2019: The Art of Exposing Injustice / Activation Programme
In 2019, Disruption Network Lab presents a new programme series: The Art of Exposing Injustice, and introduces the first meetups throughout the year. The Art of Exposing Injustice refers to the intersections between art, digital rights, social justice and social accountability... Read more.
DARK HAVENS: Confronting Hidden Money & Power #DNL15 · April 2019
Exploring the inner mechanisms of the financial system, and the crime, corruption and wrongdoing hidden by secretive offshore companies.
▶ watch dark havens
AI TRAPS: Automating Discrimination #DNL16 · June 2019
A close look at how AI & algorithms reinforce prejudices and biases of its human creators and societies, and how to fight discrimination.
▶ watch ai traps
CITIZENS OF EVIDENCE: Independent Investigations for Change #DNL17 · Sept 2019
Exploring the investigative impact of grassroots communities and citizens to expose injustice, corruption and power asymmetries.
▶ watch citizens of evidence
ACTIVATION: Collective Strategies to Expose Injustice #DNL18 · Nov 2019
Gathering the community around the Disruption Network Lab to share collective approaches and tools for activating social, political and cultural change.
▶ watch activation
2018: Misinformation Ecosystems
“Misinformation Ecosystems” is the conceptual framework for two thematic conference events, in May and September 2018. Focus is the analysis of hate speech, strategic opinion manipulation, and the emergence of far-right ideologies… Read more.
HATE NEWS: Manipulators, Trolls & Influencers #DNL13 · May 2018
Investigating online opinion manipulation, strategic hate speech and misinformation – and their impact on civil rights.
INFILTRATION: Challenging Supremacism #DNL14 · September 2018
A journey inside right wing extremism and supremacist ideology to provoke direct change.
2017: Outer Spaces
The thematic framework in which the Disruption Network Lab operated in 2017 is “Outer Spaces”. Outer Space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, a concept that refers to the principle of horror vacui, from the Greek philosopher Aristotle, questioning the possible existence of a void in space… Read more.
PRISONERS OF DISSENT: Locked Up for Exposing Crimes #DNL11 · May 2017
Whistleblowers and truth-tellers persecuted for blowing the whistle, critical thinkers and activists meet to discuss countermeasures to detention and repression.
TERROR FEEDS: Inside the Fear Machine #DNL12 · November 2017
An analysis of ISIS and its media strategy, the meaning of cyber jihad, and why people enroll as foreign fighters.
2016: Outreach / Art & Evidence
“Art & Evidence” is the framework of the second series of conference events (June-November 2016). Inspired by a conceptual exchange of curator Tatiana Bazzichelli with Academy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras, Art & Evidence refers to the act of revealing facts, exposing misconducts and wrongdoings, and producing awareness about social, political and technological matters…. Read more
BOTS: Tracking Systems of Control #DNL7 · April 2016
Investigating the dark side of bot usage, the issues of surveillance, tracking and whistleblowing.
DEEP CABLES: Uncovering the Wiring of the World #DNL8 · June 2016
Hackers, engineers, investigative journalists, writers, researchers, artists and activists unveil how the Internet really works, how it is secretly structured, and in which way interlinked land and undersea network cables influence our political, cultural and everyday life.
IGNORANCE: The Power of Non-Knowledge #DNL9 · October 2016
Artists, scientists, researchers, activists and journalists present and discuss ways and strategies to explore, unveil and unmake ignorance and its political, legal and social uses in everyday life.
TRUTH-TELLERS: The Impact of Speaking Out #DNL10 · November 2016
Can we trust the sources and can the sources trust us? Hacktivists, privacy advocates, investigative journalists, artists and researchers reflect on the consequences of leaking and whistleblowing from a political, cultural and technological perspective.
2015: Disruption Network Lab
The first series of conference events (April-December 2015), under the name "Disruption Network Lab", focuses on media practices at the borders of hacking, art and activism covering a wide spectrum of political, cultural and economical issues: from the use of drones in political conflicts, to the emergence of social media practices shaping our everyday life… Read more.
DRONES: Eyes From a Distance #DNL1 · April 2015
On Drone-Systems and their Strategies. Meet a former U.S. drone operator, investigative journalists, activists, filmmakers and international experts on drone warfare
A GAME OF YOU: Into the Social Media Vortex #DNL3 · August 2015
#GamerGate, Technovikings & Smart Media as a Psychedelic Webcomic - survival in the wild torrents of our digital lives.
CYBORG: Hacktivists, Freaks and Hybrid Uprisings #DNL2 · May 2015
Hackers, cyberfeminists, (trans)gender activists, artists and transhumanists expose power structures embedded in technology and everyday life.
SAMIZDATA: Tactics and Strategies for Resistance #DNL4 · September 2015
Analysing tactics and strategies of resistance connected with the Snowden affair in physical and digital life, this conference event brings together hackers, artists and critical thinkers, who apply and work on the concept of social justice from different angles.
PORNTUBES: Sharing the Explicit #DNL5 · October 2015
Porn practitioners, sex worker activists, entrepreneurs and critical thinkers discuss disruptions in online porn and erotica, from tube sites and webcams to crowdsourcing.
STUNTS: Distributed, Playful and Disruptive #DNL6 · December 2015
Artists, hackers, mythmakers and disrupters present and discuss political stunts, interventions, pranks and viralities.