[artinfo] Networked Disruption by Tatiana Bazzichelli

[Marcela Okretiã]

Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, 
Ljubljana, in collaboration with several 
partners, is proud to announce:


Networked Disruption
Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and Business
Group exhibition and side programme
Curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli

<http://www.aksioma.org/networked.disruption>www.aksioma.org/networked.disruption


Exhibition @ ·kuc Gallery, Stari trg 21, 
Ljubljana, Slovenia / March 11 - April 3, 2015

Seminar @ Kino ·i”ka, Trg prekomorskih brigad 3, 
Ljubljana, Slovenia / March 11 - 12, 2015
<http://www.aksioma.org/press/networked.disruption.zip>

Networked Disruption is an exhibition and a 
series of events produced by Aksioma and Drugo 
more in collaboration with several partners and 
curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli. The exhibition, 
hosted by ·kuc Gallery in Ljubljana and the 
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, 
is centred on the concept of "Networked 
Disruption", as an opportunity to show new 
possible routes of social and political action in 
the line of disruption. It focuses on the mutual 
interferences between business and disruption, by 
shedding light simultaneously on heterogeneous 
practices of hackers, artists, networkers, 
whistleblowers, activists and entrepreneurs who 
engage deeply with network activity.

The increasing commercialisation of sharing and 
networking contexts since the middle of 2000s is 
transforming the meaning of art and that of 
business. What were once marginal practices of 
networking in underground hacker and artistic 
contexts have in recent years become a core 
business for many information technology 
companies and social media enterprises. In 
Bazzichelli's analysis, art intertwines with 
disruption beyond dialectical oppositions, 
leading to a discovery of subliminal and 
distributed strategies, which emerge from within 
the capitalistic systems, or act within it. In 
the exhibition and seminar, she involves actors 
who directly engage with hacktivism, art, civil 
liberties and social networking exposing 
contradictions of capitalistic logics and power 
systems. Such interventions hijack the logic of 
business itself, appropriating and détourning it 
by operating disruption. The challenge is to 
collectively rethink oppositional hacktivist and 
artistic strategies within the framework of 
(social) networking, information economy and 
increasingly invasive corporations and government 
agencies.

The exhibition shows a diverse constellation of 
networking projects that aims to actualise - and 
to question - the notion of "networking" itself: 
Anna Adamolo, Anonymous, Billboard Liberation 
Front, Burning Man Festival, Cacophony Society, 
Janez Jan”a, Janez Jan”a and Janez Jan”a, Julian 
Oliver, Laura Poitras, Les Liens Invisibles, 
Luther Blissett, Mail Art, Neoism, Peng! 
Collective, Suicide Club, Telekommunisten, and 
Trevor Paglen.

The Networked Disruption exhibition is based on 
Bazzichelli's book Networked Disruption: 
Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the 
Business of Social Networking (DARC Press, The 
Digital Aesthetics Research Centre of Aarhus 
University, 2013). Bazzichelli's hypothesis is 
that mutual interferences between art, hacktivism 
and the business of social networking have 
changed the meaning and contexts of political and 
technological criticism. Hackers and artists have 
been active agents in business innovation, while 
at the same time also undermining business. 
Artists and hackers use disruptive techniques of 
networking within the framework of social media, 
opening up a critical perspective towards 
business to generate unpredictable feedback and 
unexpected reactions; business enterprises apply 
disruption as a form of innovation to create new 
markets and network values, which are often just 
as unpredictable. Bazzichelli proposes the 
concept of the Art of Disrupting Business as a 
form of artistic practice within the business 
field of information technology.

The artworks and collective projects are 
conceptually and visually interlinked in the 
exhibition spaces, which constitutes a network of 
networks. By applying the strategy of "working 
from within", some sections of the show are 
conceptualised in collaboration with people 
deeply involved in the networks under scrutiny: 
Vittore Baroni (Mail Art), Florian Cramer 
(Neoism), Gabriella Coleman (Anonymous), John Law 
(Suicide Club and Cacophony Society), Andrea 
Natella (The Luther Blissett Project) and members 
of the Anna Adamolo network.

This choice reflects the perspective that a new 
methodology of curating a research should open a 
metaphorical (and physical) space to encourage 
and provoke feedback loops among theory and 
practice, and among subjects and objects of 
analysis. The result is a constellation of 
networking practices, which aims to actualise - 
and to question - the notion of "direct 
participation" itself.


Seminar registration: Please send your full name 
and e-mail address by March 10th to: 
<mailto:sonjagrdina at gmail.com>sonjagrdina at gmail.com

Project's webpage: 
<http://www.aksioma.org/networked.disruption>www.aksioma.org/networked.disruption
Seminar full programme and participants: 
<http://www.aksioma.org/networked.disruption/pdf/seminar_eng.pdf>www.aksioma.org/networked.disruption/pdf/seminar_eng.pdf

Tatiana Bazzichelli is a curator and researcher, 
author of the books Networked Disruption (2013), 
Networking (2008), and co-editor of the book 
Disrupting Business (2013). She is director of 
the Disruption Network Lab, an experimental 
curatorial project on art, hacktivism, and 
disruption, based in Berlin. She was programme 
curator at the transmediale festival from 2011 to 
2014, initiating the year-round reSource 
transmedial culture project, and was a 
Post-Doctoral researcher at the Centre for 
Digital Cultures, Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

CREDITS

Curated by: Tatiana Bazzichelli
Head of production: Janez Jan”a

Artistic directors: Janez Jan”a (Aksioma), Vladimir Vidmar (·kuc Gallery)
Producers: Marcela Okretiã, Jo”ko Pajer
Executive producer: Sonja Grdina
Assistant: Boris Beja
Technicians: Atila Bo”tjanãiã, Valter Udoviãiç
Public relations: Hana Ostan OÏbolt
Documentation: Miha Fras, Adriana Aleksiç, Jernej âuãek Gerbec


Production: Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary 
Art, Ljubljana; Drugo more, Rijeka, 2015
Coproduction: Abandon Normal Devices, ·kuc 
Gallery, Kino ·i”ka, Museum of Modern and 
Contemporary Art, Rijeka
Partners: Moderna galerija Ljubljana, d-i-n-a / 
The Influencers, Link Art Center

Networked Disruption is realized in the framework 
of Masters & Servers, a joint project by Aksioma 
(SI), Drugo more (HR), AND (UK), Link Art Center 
(IT) and d-i-n-a / The Influencers (ES).
<http://www.mastersandservers.org>www.mastersandservers.org

Supported by: the Creative Europe programme of 
the European Union, the Ministry of Culture of 
the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of 
Ljubljana, Istituto Italiano di Cultura in 
Slovenia.

This project has been funded with support from 
the European Commission. This communication 
reflects the views only of the author, and the 
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use 
which may be made of the information contained 
therein.

Contact: <http://www.aksioma.org/contacts>www.aksioma.org/contacts