Berlin 11-12 September 2015:

SAMIZDATA: Tactics and Strategies for Resistance

This two-day event is in collaboration with SAMIZDATA: Evidence of Conspiracy, Jacob Appelbaum’s first solo show in Germany, curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli at NOME

Studio 1 · Kunstquartier Bethanien · Mariannenplatz 2 · Berlin-Kreuzberg

Entrance: 5€ / day

Jacob Appelbaum (USA/DE) · Laura Poitras (USA)
Theresa Züger (DE) · Jørgen Johansen (NO)
Jaromil (IT/NL) · Sophie Toupin (QC/CA) · Valie Djordjevic (DE)

Partner Event: Thursday September 10 ·  2015 · 18:00
Opening at NOME: SAMIZDATA: Evidence of Conspiracy

Partner Event: Saturday September 12 · 2015 · 18:00
Cryptoparty @ Spektrum

By 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. The goal is not to bring clear instructions, but to imagine possible alternatives into the development of shared forms of post-digital resistance.

The Snowden disclosures have increased the debate about surveillance, privacy and liberty involving many people among hackers, activists, media experts, politicians and critical thinkers in Berlin and worldwide. From one side they have contributed in bringing evidence to hidden geo-political power structures, confirming what many activists and hackers were suspecting since long: that surveillance and repression are not abstract threats, they are already invading public and private lives.

But from the other side, the difficulty of grasping the debate’s big political scale, the impossibility of accessing or spreading the leaked documents, and the general idea that “there is no place to hide”, have increased fears of surveillance and control – not only among the people targeted by surveillance, but also through civil society. Too often we have heard the question: “What can we do?”. Many people are already developing alternatives to protect data privacy, but a deeper discussion on common and shared political agency and collective forms of resistance and civil disobedience that go beyond data protection is needed.

The conference programme involves journalists, artists, researchers and activists who analyse whistleblowing from a critical perspective bringing an insider critique of contemporary politics and state surveillance networks. Furthermore, it reflects on the long-term sustainability of whistleblowing practices, and the importance of establishing networks of trust, to protect possible sources and guarantee the rights of speaking out beyond fears, paranoia and the politics of war.

This two-day event is in collaboration with SAMIZDATA: Evidence of Conspiracy, Jacob Appelbaum’s first solo show in Germany at NOME.

Partner Event - Thursday September 10 · 2015 · 18:00
Opening @ NOME

Opening of the exhibition SAMIZDATA: Evidence of Conspiracy by Jacob Appelbaum at the NOME Gallery, Dolziger str. 31, 10247 Berlin Friedrichshain (curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli).

A series of colored infrared photos are shown as cibachrome prints: a critique of the progressive loss of liberty, using analogue surveillance film to portrait people who are uncovering surveillance itself. More information on the exhibition here.

Friday September 11 · 2015 · 17:30-19:30

SAMIZDATA: Evidence of conspiracy

Jacob Appelbaum (journalist, artist and researcher, USA/DE), Laura Poitras (Academy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist, USA), Theresa Züger (researcher on civil disobedience, DE), Moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director of the Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE)

A conversation about document leaking, strategies of transparency and the actual struggle for universal human rights and social justice through activist and artistic practices. Art becomes a means to expose misconducts and abuses of Government, organisations and corporations. This approach has a double effect: from one side it informs the general public about unspoken facts or behaviours, which need to be revealed, and from the other, it empowers people to adopt this methodology and keep the ball of exposure rolling. The goal is to make people aware of such mechanisms, opening up a critical perspective to generate evidence as an artistic strategy and to improve transparency and alternatives to fear and control. Even when inter-personal communication becomes a field for the expanding narrative of total war, the goal is to reflect on the importance of establishing networks of trust and collective forms of civil disobedience.

Saturday September 12 · 2015 · 15:00-17:00

SAMIZDATA: Strategies for Resistance

Jørgen Johansen (researcher on resistance studies, civil disobedience and whistleblowing, NO), Jaromil (hacktivist, IT/NL), Sophie Toupin (researcher and feminist techno/activist, QC/CA), moderated by Valie Djordjevic (net activist, DE).

What does it mean today to speak about “resistance” on the net and beyond more than two years after the first of Edward Snowden’s disclosures? In the past years the world at large has been shocked by revelations about state surveillance networks and their prevarication over citizen's rights. Such a scenario is not new to hackers, but more than ever today is extending a grim aura over our capacity to imagine a better society. By going beyond fear and paranoia of surveillance, this panel reflects on the impact of the Snowden case, and on the upcoming frontiers of action and awareness for hackers, activists and artists in the present context of geopolitical powers. Without undermining the need of encrypting our data, and protecting our physical and online existence, this discussion aims to go beyond the current state of paranoid-affairs and crypto-angst into the development of shared forms of post-digital resistance, in search of positive alternatives and horizons for the kind of consciousness cultivated by hackers and activists.

Partner Event - Saturday September 12 · 2015 · 18:00
CryptoParty @ Spektrum

Learn and teach how to use basic cryptography tools at Spektrum Bürknerstraße 12, Berlin 12047.
CryptoParty is a global, decentralized initiative to introduce the most basic cryptography programs and fundamental concepts of their operation to the general public. What you do
on the internet can be tracked. The state, advertisers or whoever wants information about you is not hesitating to collect. The good news is that you can learn how to protect your privacy on the Internet. Strong encryption is not only for spies, presidents and banks.
Encryption is for everyone, and everyone has the right to privacy. At a CryptoParty you can learn or teach how to encrypt emails, chats and data and how to stay anonymous online. You don't need specific knowledge to attend a CryptoParty. The only thing you need is a laptop or a smartphone. Everyone can learn it! Everyone has the right to privacy!

Participants

Jacob Appelbaum (journalist, artist and researcher, USA/DE)

Jacob Appelbaum is a post-national independent computer security researcher, journalist and photographer. He is a core member of the Tor project, a free software network designed to provide online anonymity. He also trains interested parties globally on how to effectively use and contribute to the Tor network, enabling people to have agency, while informing, researching and writing about surveillance and privacy.

Laura Poitras (Academy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist, USA)

Laura Poitras is a Best Documentary Academy Award-winning filmmaker, a journalist and an artist. She is the author of a trilogy of films about America post-9/11. Her last film, Citizenfour, is about NSA mass surveillance and Edward Snowden. In January 2013, Laura Poitras was contacted by an anonymous source claiming to have evidence of National Security Agency (NSA) illegal activity. After several months of anonymous emails, she travelled to Hong Kong with journalist Glenn Greenwald to interview the source, Edward Snowden. Her NSA reporting contributed to a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service awarded to The Guardian and Washington Post. In 2016, she will have her first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Along with Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, she is co-founder of The Intercept.

Theresa Züger (researcher on civil disobedience, DE)

Theresa Züger is Doctoral Researcher on Global Constitutionalism and the Internet at the HIIG (The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society) in Berlin. She studied media and culture, German philology and philosophy at the University of Cologne. Her magister thesis addressed Internet ethics and Internet governance. Before joining HIIG, she worked as a communication specialist at Great Place to Work® Germany. The question of her PhD project at the HIIG concerns digital civil disobedience.

Jørgen Johansen (researcher on resistance studies, civil disobedience and whistleblowing, NO)

Jørgen Johansen is a freelance writer, activist, and researcher. He has worked in more than 100 countries the last 40 years. His list of publications includes eight books, tens of chapters, and hundreds of articles. Some of his present engagements are Deputy Editor of Journal of Resistance Studies, Advisor to the Ombudsman in Tbilisi/Georgia, Faculty member at Hacettepe University in Turkey, Chief Editor for Irene Publishing, and teacher at Nätverkstan (an independent cultural organization). Resistancestudies.org

Jaromil (hacktivist, Dyne.org, IT/NL)

Jaromil is an activist, hacker and artist, cofounder of the Dyne.org think & do tank, home to a digital community of critical makers and nomadic developers. He writes code and publishes it as free and open source software, his research focuses on the subjects of decentralization, algorithms and independent media practices. Jaromil was awarded the Vilém Flusser Award (transmediale) and recognized as top 100 social entrepreneur (Purpose Economy, 2014) and European young leader (40 under 40, 2012).

Sophie Toupin (researcher and feminist techno/activist, QC/CA)

Sophie Toupin's work explores the linkages between technology, feminism and activism through ethnographic studies and projects. She co-founded and collaborates with FemHack, a feminist hacklab in Montreal and the TransHackFeminist project in Calafou, Catalonia, among others. Sophie works for Media@McGill, a hub for research and scholarship on media, technology and culture at McGill University in Montreal. Her current research focuses on feminism and hacking, feminist approaches and pedagogies to cryptography, anti-colonial hacking, and, feminist, queer+trans hacker culture.

Valie Djordjevic (net activist, iRights.info, DE)

Valie Djordjevic lives and works in Berlin. She is an editor at iRights.info, a website about copyright in the digital age, and a writer and lecturer on digital culture, copyright and art. She studied literature, languages and film studies in Germany and the UK. She is an active participant in various net culture and net art initiatives and projects since the 1990s. Valid.de