#DNL36 · September 19–21 2025

TECHNOVIOLENCE

Confronting Systematic Injustice

THE 36th CONFERENCE OF THE DISRUPTION NETWORK LAB

studio 1, KUNSTQUARTIER BETHANIEN, marianneplatz 2, 10997 Berlin & STREAMING
Workshop at Stadtwerkstatt, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11, 10178 Berlin

Curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli (Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE)

Streamed for free. No registration required to follow the stream.

Workshop IS not streamed.

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The conference Technoviolence: Confronting Systematic Injustice, analyses the production of evidence of systematic injustice. This includes human rights abuses in war conflicts and border regimes, as well as in extractive industries, cyber-surveillance, and political oppression in urban contexts. The conference creates knowledge through situated experience and empower communities to imagine forms of resistance. It combines artistic practices and activist tactics with investigations and the strategic use of online tools to expose human rights abuses and produce evidence of invisible crimes that urgently require public discussion.

The current war in Gaza, the escalating military conflict between Israel and Iran, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, protests in the United States, and the conflict with Mexico, the issue of rearming and securitisation in Europe, have all been key issues at the forefront of our local and international political and media agendas, alongside global humanitarian crises.

With this conference we want to address the role of direct action, art and activism in producing evidence in the context of war conflicts, border regimes and the systematic and strategic targeting of minorities for security purposes at the city level. We aim to inform about the risks of introducing technologies such as artificial intelligence, facial recognition software, cyber-surveillance, or the manipulation of social networks to facilitate state and corporate oppression of vulnerable people, and how art, activism and direct action can help to produce evidence of these issues.  We aim to provide insight into this phenomenon and share knowledge among artists, activists, whistleblowers, tech experts, investigators and the civil society at large.

The conference will explore the artistic and investigatory potential to uncover facts, expose wrongdoing and raise awareness of social, political and technological issues. We propose to create a debate inviting organisations, artists and activists based in Berlin and internationally who are working scientifically to expose human rights abuses through artistic practices, investigations and online tools.

Furthermore, we aim to focus on how wars, borders and migration routes, but also urban areas are used as strategic testing grounds for technologies of violence and oppression, and how ethnic minorities and vulnerable communities are affected as targeted groups in a process where Big Tech, corporate and state interests are often intertwined.

Community Meetup · PREDICTABLE CRIMES: AI in the Police

16 October 2025 · nGbK, neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst

When people talk about AI, they are usually referring to sophisticated machine learning processes. All these systems are complex and require many human decisions to make them work. These decisions in turn require knowledge and understanding of both the technical processes and the social context of their use. This workshop provides an insight into several predictive policing experiments that are ongoing in Berlin and Germany and are being implemented, often targeting vulnerable communities.