#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.
Tickets will also be available at the conference venue on September 19–20, but we recommend that you purchase them online in advance to guarantee your seat.
Confirmed Speakers
Terry Albury · Ifeoma Ozoma · Heba Y. Amin · Anni Garza Lau · Gro Sarauw · Jennifer Kamau · Rima Sghaier · Lya Cuéllar · Safa Ghnaim · Geert Lovink
Terry Albury (Former FBI Agent, Whistleblower, US), Ifeoma Ozoma (Founder of Earthseed, US), Heba Y. Amin (Artist, Professor of Digital and Time-Based Art, ABK-Stuttgart, EG/DE), Anni Garza Lau (Artist, Technologist. Co-founder Ghost Agency, DK/MX), Gro Sarauw (Artist, Co-founder Ghost Agency, DK), Jennifer Kamau (Co-founder International Women space, Co-lead at the Migrant Justice Community of Practise, KE/DE), Rima Sghaier (Digital Rights Advocate, Researcher, TN/IT), Lya Cuéllar (Journalist and political scientist, SV/DE), Safa Ghnaim (Researcher, Associate Program Director, Digital Arabia Network, PS/DE), Geert Lovink (Founding Director, Institute of Network Cultures, NL).
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Schedule
Friday, September 19 2025 · Get tickets
16:00 CEST · Doors open
16:30–16:40 · Opening: Tatiana Bazzichelli
Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, Director, Disruption Network Institute, IT/DE).
16:40–18:00 · Keynote: Ifeoma Ozoma
Ifeoma Ozoma (Founder of Earthseed, US).
18:30–18:45 · Book Intro: “Platform Brutality”, Geert Lovink
Geert Lovink (Founding Director, Institute of Network Cultures, NL).
18:45–20:45 · Panel: Anni Garza Lau, Gro Sarauw, Jennifer Kamau
Anni Garza Lau (Artist, Technologist. Co-founder Ghost Agency, DK/MX), Gro Sarauw (Artist, Co-founder Ghost Agency, DK), Jennifer Kamau (Co-founder International Women space, Co-lead at the Migrant Justice Community of Practise, KE/DE). Moderated by Geert Lovink (Founding Director, Institute of Network Cultures, NL).
Saturday, September 20, 2025 · Get tickets
15:30 · Doors open
16:00–18:15 · Panel: Rima Sghaier, Lya Cuéllar, Safa Ghnaim
Rima Sghaier (Digital Rights Advocate, Researcher, TN/IT), Lya Cuéllar (Journalist and political scientist, SV/DE), Safa Ghnaim (Researcher, Associate Program Director, Digital Arabia Network, PS/DE).
18:45–20:30 · Keynote: Terry Albury, Linzy Billing
Terry Albury (Former FBI Agent, Whistleblower, US), Lynzy Billing (Investigative Journalist and Photographer, UK/AF/PK), In conversation with Heba Y. Amin (Artist, Professor of Digital and Time-Based Art, ABK-Stuttgart, EG/DE).
Sunday, September 21, 2025 · Get tickets
14:00–17:00 · Workshop: Weaving Resistance in the Age of Digital Fascism and Tech Oligarchy
With Rima Sghaier (Digital Rights Advocate, Researcher, TN/IT)
At Stadtwerkstatt
Funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds (The Capital Cultural Fund), The Reva and David Logan Foundation. Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.
Partner Venues: Kunstraum Kreuzberg /Bethanien, nGbK, Stadtwerkstatt
Streaming partner: Boiling Head Media.
Technology Partner: Geier-Tronic.
Media Partners: Taz, Il Mitte, UntoldMag
TECHNOVIOLENCE
Confronting Systematic Injustice
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.
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Full Programme Details coming soon
Join the Newsletter & the Telegram Channel for updates.
Become a Member for early invites.
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Sunday September 21 · Register before Sept 11
Workshop · Weaving Resistance in the Age of Digital Fascism and Tech Oligarchy
Sunday 21 September, 14:00–17:00, Stadtwerkstatt (Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11, 10178 Berlin)
With Rima Sghaier (Digital Rights Advocate, Researcher, TN/IT)
Max 30 participants. Register before September 11.
In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of fascist, anti-democratic discourses across political, social, and human rights contexts both online and offline. Transnational networks are actively spreading anti-rights narratives and legitimizing repression. As AI and surveillance infrastructures become deeply embedded in everyday life, they are increasingly used by authoritarian states, law enforcement, and corporate tech elites to monitor, silence, and criminalize, especially those already pushed to the margins.
This collaborative workshop centers the knowledge of those most harmed by digital systems: migrants, racialized communities, queer people, and those living under occupation, censorship, or systemic exclusion. It offers a space to contribute, analyze, and reimagine how we document harassment in regions often overlooked by platforms and media.
Together, we will trace patterns of online harassment and transnational hate campaigns, examining how they reinforce broader systems of fascism, patriarchy, and technoviolence. We will also explore the role and complicity of Big Tech in enabling and profiting from these dynamics. Led by Rima Sghaier, case studies will include targeted harassment campaigns against minorities and activists in the SWANA region.
Through discussion, co-writing, and strategic imagination, we will build a living archive of the under-reported and ask: What counts as evidence? Who controls visibility? And how do we reclaim digital spaces when they are built to exclude us?
This workshop is designed for international participants with an interest in platform accountability, responsible tech, and digital resiliency, including those who have personally experienced digital repression, surveillance, or online harassment. No prior technical skills are required. Participants are encouraged to bring laptops and/or mobile phones, if they have access to these devices.
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Speakers
Terry Albury
Former FBI Agent, Whistleblower, US
Terry Albury is a former FBI counterterrorism agent whose nearly 17-year career began in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. After years of ideological compromises, he made a series of unauthorised disclosures to The Intercept resulting in the comprehensive and exhaustive journalistic piece known as The FBI’s Secret Rules. His revelations stemmed from an internal crisis of conscience as he witnessed the U.S. government’s baseless and vindictive targeting of vulnerable and marginalised communities under the specious pretext of national security. This act of civil disobedience was rewarded with a prosecution under the Espionage Act and a sentence of four years in federal prison. In a display of solidarity, multiple scholars of constitutional law along with The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press submitted amicus briefs on his behalf which contextualised the importance of these revelations especially as they pertained to holding the FBI accountable for blatant and repeated abuses of law under the opaque and duplicitous “war on terrorism.” Today, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he supports the work of lawyers, civil rights/liberties organisations, academics, and journalists.
Ifeoma Ozoma
Founder of Earthseed, US
After two years working on public policy at Pinterest, Ifeoma Ozoma resigned and spoke about gender and race discrimination she experienced at the company. She subsequently began a consulting firm called Earthseed and has worked to advocate for whistleblower protection legislation and other worker protections in the technology industry. At Earthseed, she co-sponsored the Silenced No More Act in California.. This legislation, signed into law in 2021, allows workers to share information about harassment and discrimination, regardless of a nondisclosure or nondisparagement agreement. Additionally, Ifeoma co-founded the Transparency in Employment Agreements Coalition, which leveraged shareholder engagement to expand the protections of California’s Silenced No More Act globally, leading to reforms at Salesforce, Apple, Alphabet, Expensify, Twilio, and Microsoft.
Ifeoma also held public policy and government relations roles at Google, Facebook, and Pinterest and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Yale University. Outside of work, Ifeoma loves time with her family on their hobby farm in New Mexico. When she’s not busy with their 4 dogs, goats, chickens, rabbits, innumerable fruit trees, and berry bushes, she can be found inside playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Heba Y. Amin
Artist, Professor of Digital and Time-Based Art, ABK-Stuttgart, EG/DE
Artist Heba Y. Amin engages with political themes and archival history, using mixed-media including film, photography, performance and installation. Her artistic research takes a speculative, often satirical, approach to challenging narratives of conquest and control. Amin is Professor of Digital and Time-Based art at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, co-founder of Black Athena Collective, curator of visual art for MIZNA journal, and currently sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Digital War. She was awarded the 2025 Hans-Molfenter Preis/City of Stuttgart Prize, 2022 Nordhorn City art prize, the 2020 Sussmann Artist Award for artists committed to the ideals of democracy and antifascism, and the 2019 Field of Vision Fellowship. Amin’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions including The Mosaic Rooms, London (2021), Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam (2020), Quai Branly Museum, Paris (2020), MAXXI Museum, Rome (2018), Liverpool Biennial (2021), to name a few. Her publication, Heba Y. Amin: The General’s Stork (ed. Anthony Downey) was published by Sternberg Press in 2020 and her works and interventions have been covered by The New York Times, The Guardian, the Intercept, and BBC among others. Furthermore, Amin is one of the artists behind the subversive graffiti action on the set of the television series “Homeland” which received worldwide media attention.
Anni Garza Lau
Artist, Technologist. Co-founder Ghost Agency, DK/MX
Anni Garza Lau is a Mexican artist and researcher exploring the affective, political, and social dimensions of human-machine interactions. Her practice spans electronic art, critical technologies, and community-based processes. She is co-founder, with Gro Sarauw of Ghost Agency, a Danish-Mexican initiative that advocates for digital human rights through artistic research and technology training for vulnerable communities, particularly women. Anni’s work has been presented internationally and she is a member of the Mexican National System of Art Creators.
Gro Sarauw
Artist, Co-founder Ghost Agency, DK
Gro Sarauw is an artist, organiser and architect based in Copenhagen. She reseaerches concepts of spatial justice in digital humanities and transformational potentials of artistic research and practice. In 2021 her research initiative led to the foundation of Ghost Agency, an artistic research practice and advocacy for women’s rights in the digital age with the Mexican artist Anni Garza Lau. Operating at the intersection of artistic practice, digital technology, and humanitarian inquiry, Ghost Agency works translocally between Mexico, the U.S., and Europe. They have exhibited in Mexico City, Tecate (MX), Los Angeles, San Diego, Barcelona and Copenhagen. Besides their research including developing cybersecurity technologies and literacies, they lecture and teach at art schools and universities.
Jennifer Kamau
Co-founder International Women space, Co-lead at the Migrant Justice Community of Practise, KE/DE
Jennifer Kamau is a Berlin-based activist and researcher. She is one of the initiators of the International Women Space, which is a network of (former) asylum seekers and migrants that fosters solidarity and collaboration, produces books, organizes campaigns and conferences on the issues of asylum seekers and migrants. This network emerged from the "famous" occupation of the Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg some years ago, as a feminist response to the predominantly male concerns of the insurgent refugees. Most recently Kamau co-organised "When I came to Germany" (2017), a two-day conference focusing on the experiences of women who came to West Germany as guest workers, to East Germany as contract workers, as migrants, and refugees to the reunified Germany and of German women who are affected by racism. Recent publications include In Our Own Words. Refugee Women in Germany Tell Their Stories (2015).
Rima Sghaier
Digital Rights Advocate, Researcher, TN/IT
Rima Sghaier is a feminist activist, researcher, policy analyst, FOSS enthusiast, and an avid advocate for internet freedom. Her work and research focus on the intersection of human rights, gender, policy and tech. She has worked with various digital rights NGOs with particular focus on issues of freedom of speech and digital safety in the SWANA region. She is a member of the The Arab Alliance for Digital Rights and The Global Coalition for Tech Justice. Rima holds a Bachelor and a Master’s degrees in Public Law and Political Science from the Faculty of Juridical, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis.
Lya Cuéllar
Journalist and political scientist, SV/DE
Lya Cuéllar is a Salvadoran journalist based in Berlin and co-founder of the feminist media organisation Alharaca. Her work focuses on democracy and human rights both back home and in Germany. She is a journalist and political scientist with bylines in outlets in Germany and Central America. In 2019, she founded Alharaca, a Central American media start-up considered a trailblazer for feminist journalism in Latin America. In addition to journalism, she works for civil society organisations in Germany and Latin America in the field of communication and project management. She is currently working on two multilingual podcast formats.
Safa Ghnaim
Researcher, Associate Program Director, Digital Arabia Network, PS/DE
Safa Ghnaim spent her formative years assisting in presentations at multicultural, folk, and peace festivals around the United States with the aim of preserving the endangered art of traditional Palestinian embroidery and educating the public on the Palestinian diaspora experience. In 2018, Safa edited the book Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora, a project that was very personal for her. Safa is passionate about inclusivity and accessibility, as well as the intersectionality between environmentalism, human rights, and animal rights. Since 2018 she has been working with Tactical Tech on the Data Detox Kit, and has assisted in various Glass Room Community Edition installations.
Geert Lovink
Founding Director, Institute of Network Cultures, NL
Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic and author of many books, including Stuck on the Platform (2022), Sad by Design (2019), Organisation after Social Media (with Ned Rossiter, 2018), Social Media Abyss (2016), Zero Comments (2007), Dark Fiber (2002). Almost all these books have been translated into German, Italian and Spanish. Geert Lovink got his BA and MA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Amsterdam in 1984 and did his PhD at the English Department, Media & Communication Program at the University of Melbourne (2002). From 2007-2017 he was Professor of Media Theory at the European Graduate School, and from 2004-2012, an associate professor in the digital cultures program of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. In 2004 he founded the Institute of Network Cultures, which organises conferences, publications and research networks such as Video Vortex (online video), The Future of Art Criticism and MoneyLab (internet-based revenue models in the arts). Recent projects deal with digital publishing experiments, critical meme research, participatory hybrid events and precarity in the arts.
