CBIC is research and discussion group dedicated to thinking critically about platforms. We are interested in their impact on media, design, institutions, and critique.
1.) We hold periodic discussions in New York City with assigned readings.
1a.) You can get updates about those here.
1b.) The content of our past discussions are listed here.
2.) We produce publications.
3.) We keep a diary of news and events here.
4.) Most importantly we are a network or writers, artists, designers, and technologists.
One of the more recent classes.
CBIC XVII: The Smart City
July 25, 2017
7:00 - 9:00 pm
IRL Institute
2 Cornelia St., New York, New York 10014
Host: Christina Badal
“Through its concentration of physical and cultural power, the city heightened the tempo of human intercourse and translated its products into forms that could be stored and reproduced. Through its monuments, written records, and orderly habits of association, the city enlarged the scope of all human activities, extending them backwards and forwards in time. By means of its storage facilities (buildings, vaults, archives, monuments, tablets, books), the city became capable of transmitting a complex culture from generation to generation, for it marshaled together not only the physical means but the human agents needed to pass on and enlarge this heritage. That remains the greatest of the city’s gifts. As compared with the complex human order of the city, our present ingenious electronic mechanisms for storing and transmitting information are crude and limited.”
— Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects
The “smart city” has become a metonym for an inevitable future in which all the complex mechanics of the city are transformed into data points, smoothly automated and controlled through a technological infrastructure. It populates headlines in FastCo and the Wall Street Journal, generates McKinsey reports, spurs government policies and initiatives, and propels new players and new opportunities for the giants of IT, telecommunications, and energy management. It promises to be less wasteful, less dangerous, more responsive, and more transparent.
The smart city is an ideology that folds together far-reaching assumptions, not only about “intelligence” but also governance, security, privacy, ownership, history/memory, agency, aesthetics, and representation. In effect, the smart city is an argument about what the city is and should be.
During this discussion, we hope to begin uncovering the particular value assumptions and implications of the smart city, along with interrogating the way it is represented, shaped, and understood. Is the “smart city” really a new phenomenon, or have cities always possessed a certain kind of intelligence? Ultimately, we hope to begin thinking about what alternative “smart cities” might look like, whether they are already existing or entirely fictional, along with methods and tools for building them.
Readings:
A City is Not a Computer Shannon Mattern https://placesjournal.org/article/a-city-is-not-a-computer/
What Can an Algorithm Do? Josh Scannell http://dismagazine.com/discussion/72975/josh-scannell-what-can-an-algorithm-do/
My thoughts on the smart city Rem Koolhaas http://ec.europa.eu/archives/commission_2010-2014/kroes/en/content/my-thoughts-smart-city-rem-koolhaas.html
Keller Easterling on Hacking the Operating System of Our Cities Samuel Medina http://www.metropolismag.com/cities/keller-easterling-hacking-operating-system-our-cities/
Additional Resources: are.na/christina-badal/the-smart-city
CBIC XIV: Cyborg Futures
9/28/2016
IRL Institute 2 Cornelia St 11th Floor 7 PM
Overview
The topic of this #CBIC is on the origins of the word "cyborg" and our cyborg futures. Donna Haraway's description of the cyborg is now synonymous with the word itself: “A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction.” Her 1985 essay, later published in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women (1991), employs the metaphor of a cyborg to reimagine socialist-feminist discourse and practice through the social relations of science and technology. While her usage of the term is the most familiar, what do we invoke when we use this term? How has the word been misappropriated and what do we intend to connote with its usage?
With selfie and lean-in feminism; government supported “Women in STEM” programs, Black Girls Code, and other initiatives for women in tech; hormone therapy, IUDs, oocyte cryopreservation; global capitalism and the outsourcing of electronic consumer goods to developing economies, the reemergence of the term in popular discourse is aptly timed, though often taken out of context. Nearly three decades since Haraway’s original essay was published, what about cyborg feminism has changed and what has remained the same? Who is a cyborg?
The most essential reading to the conversation is Haraway’s “Manifesto.” “Whatever Happened to the Cyborg Manifesto?” is an incredibly accessible critique. From there, pick and choose based on your interests and time. “Additional Links” includes popular culture topics that relate to the discussion.
Reading List
PDFs can be found here
Rosi Braidotti, “Cyberfeminism with A Difference,” http://www.let.uu.nl/womens_studies/rosi/cyberfem.htm.
Laboria Cuboniks, “Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation,” http://laboriacuboniks.net/. (Google Drive)
Maria Fernandez, “Cyberfeminism, Racism, Embodiment.” (Google Drive)
Maria Fernandez and Suhail Malik, “Whatever Happened to the Cyborg Manifesto?,” Mute, 10 July 2001, http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/whatever-happened-to-cyborg-manifesto.
Shulamith Firestone, “Chapter 1: The Dialectic of Sex” and “Chapter 10: The Ultimate Revolution: Demands and Speculations,” The Dialectic of Sex (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1970). (Google Drive)
Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991). (Google Drive)
Lee Mackinnon, “Love Machines and the Tinder Bot Bildungsroman,” e-flux 74 (June 2016), http://www.e-flux.com/journal/love-machines-and-the-tinder-bot-bildungsroman/.
Lisa Nakamura, “Introduction” and “Chapter 1,” Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity (New York: Routledge, 2002). (Google Drive)
Additional Links
Lawrence K. Altman, “Baby Fae, who received a heart from baboon, dies after 20 days,” New York Times, 16 November 1984, http://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/16/us/baby-fae-who-received-a-heart-from-baboon-dies-After-20-days.html.
Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik, “Laboria Cuboniks in Conversation,” DIS Magazine, 26 July 2016, http://dismagazine.com/blog/81953/laboria-cuboniks-in-conversation/.
Josephine Bosma, “‘Body Anxiety:’ Sabotaging Big Daddy Mainframe, via online exhibition,” Rhizome, 26 January 2015, https://rhizome.org/editorial/2015/jan/26/body-anxiety/.
Marina Cashdan, “You Can Be a Mother and Still Be a Successful Artist,” Artsy, 24 August 2016, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-why-motherhood-won-t-hinder-your-career-as-an-artist.
Kali Tal, “Reviews: Lisa Nakamura: Cybertypes,” http://kalital.com/Texts/Reviews/Nakamura.html.
CBIC X School's Out
CBIC IX Simon Denny
8/19 6:30 pm New Art Dealers Alliance 55-59 Chrystie St. Suite 410 New York, NY 10002
Cloud-Based Institutional Critique: http://thepublicschool.org/node/37841
Suggested Readings
The Californian Ideology, Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, 1995 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Kl8KCRuXE_Wmppc0JfUWVITms/view?usp=sharing
Paul Mason, The End of Capitalism has Begun, The Guardian, 2015 http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun
Critical Trolling, Matt Goerzen and Simon Denny, Mousse Magazine, April 2015 http://moussemagazine.it/articolo.mm?id=1287
Chris Krause, Here Begins the Dark Sea https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7Kl8KCRuXE_YXVBYmRGUUh4QTQ
Mostafa Heddaya, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Simon Denny at PS 1 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1131487/how-to-get-ahead-in-advertising-simon-denny-at-ps1#
Charlotte Higgins, Simon Denny, the artist who did reverse espionage on the NSA, The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/05/edward-snowden-nsa-art-venice-biennale-reverse-espionage
Ryan Gallagher, Inside the Secret World of NSA Art, The Intercept https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/11/secret-power-nsa-darchicourt-art-denny/
Artist Simon Denny is Shaping Berlin’s Disruptive Startup Culture, 032c.com http://032c.com/2014/artist-simon-denny-is-shaping-berlins-disruptive-startup-culture/
CBIC VIII
CBIC VII
WTF is Neoliberalism?
Babycastles Gallery
Monday April 13th 6:30 - 8:30 PM
137 West 14th St, 2nd Fl New York, NY 10011
The next CBIC will be an informal discussion about the slippery but ubiquitous term “neoliberal(ism)”. The readings below are only a loose guide to get the conversation going. Come armed with your thoughts about the use of the term drawn from recent experience, texts, or discussions.
Neoliberalism is nothing new. Apparently it's been with us since the 1970s (or earlier), yet today we could venture that it is a term that has been taking on a new life. Quite by our own design, neoliberalism is a moving target. The term is opaque, polysemous, and charged. Yet somehow it seems so apt and useful. Fashionable, of course, but can we do better? Are we abusing this term? What are examples of neoliberal governance? Who are its subjects? There are no political parties or states that claim to be “neoliberal”. Nonetheless we’ve managed to paint a picture of some form of vast neoliberal conspiracy. To what end?
What is its relationship to digital technology and the "information society"? How is “neoliberal capital” different from “finance capital” or just regular old investments? We hear about the “neoliberal museum” and the “neoliberal university”. Are these real targets or just loose theory applied to perennial punching bags?
Is there a neoliberal aesthetics? What is a Fast-Policy network? As Peck, Theodore, and Brenner attest its ideological reach routinely exceeds its grasp in the form of policy solutions. How is it related to globalization? Of course we are intrigued by what art & theory might have to say. Buchloh: "contemporary artistic practices have become totally dependent on a neoliberal subjectivity.”
Is it encouraged by the state? Is it located in the historically-specific conditions of crisis associated with the mid-late 1970s, as David Harvey says. Is it, as Bourdieu claims, a program for destroying all collective structures which may impede pure market logic? What about the prosumer? Are they (we) neoliberal? Is it so simple as the "marketization" of everything? Is Bill Clinton to blame?
Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, The New Way of the World, Part I : Manufacturing the Neoliberal Subject. e-flux, # 51 January 2014
William Davies, Jonathan Derbyshire, Stephanie Mudge, Bob Jessop, ROUNDTABLE : The limits of neo-liberalism, RENEWAL, Vol 22 No. ¾
Matthew Clair, Rethinking Neoliberalism: Neoliberal Logics and Digital Technologies in the Literary Field, unpublished draft (please email pepi.mike@gmail.com for copy and do not cite or circulate)
Benjamin H. Buchloh, Farewell to an Identity, Artforum, December 2012
Alexander Alberro, Life Models, frieze magazine 01/06/12
David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, intro and chapter one
Isaac Julien as told to Rachel Withers on PLAYTIME and other work, Artforum, 03.17.15
Jamie Peck, Nik Theodore, and Neil Brenner, Neoliberalism Resurgent? Market Rule after the Great Recession,The South Atlantic Quarterly, Spring 2012
Pierre Bourdieu, The Essence of Neoliberalism, Le Monde diplomatique
VI
#CBIC and Contemporary Art Magazines Reading Group Collaboration
Wither New Republic? Monday, January 12, 2015 NEW INC New Museum 235 Bowery
The urgent questions of CBIC have aligned directly with the historic demise of one of the leading journals of arts and politics, the New Republic. At the same time, the examination of particular forms of critical writing and publishing that takes place at the Contemporary Art Magazines Reading Group makes for an interesting opportunity for these two groups to discuss the havoc inside the post-Hughes New Republic. Is a magazine an institution? What does it mean to be a digital publication? What did Hughes do that so rankled his editors?
Leon Wieseltier, Among The Disrupted
[Press Release announcing Gabriel Snyder and the magazine’s Venture Capital Fund][0]
Vidra’s now historic all-staff memo [https://twitter.com/ravisomaiya/status/540606035049054208][1]
Resignation Letters
Jed Perl [http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/art-critic-jed-perl-quits-the-new-republic-192785][2]
(Others: [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/05/the-new-republic-implodes.html][3])
Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker Piece
The rebuttal - [Chris Hughes' op-ed in the Washington Post][4]
"[A new New Republic][5]" - Gabriel Snyder's Note to Readers
Selections of Art Criticism from TNR back issues
Jed Perl, [Symbolism at the National Gallery][6]
Jed Perl, [Social Action][7]
Robert Hughes, [on Julian Schnabel][8]
CBIC V
12/6/14 6:30pm
34 Avenue A 3rd Fl.
NYC 10009
Readings:
Hito Steyerl, The Institution of Critique, 2006
Nathan Jurgenson, The View from Nowhere, The New Inquiry, October 2014
Evgeny Morozov, The Rise of Data and the Death of Politics, The Guardian, July 2014
Christopher Glazek, Shopkeepers of the World Unite, Artforum, June 2014
Rob Kitchin, Thinking Critically About and Researching Algorithms, October 2014
Nick O'Brien, A Plea, March 2014
IV
11/10/14
7:00pm DUMBO 55 Washington St.
New York, NY 11201
The following readings were the suggestions of a crack team of regular CBIC participants. In no particular order:
Peter Thiel, “Competition Is for Losers” http://online.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536
Sigmar Gabriel, “Political consequences of the Google debate” http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/sigmar-gabriel-consequences-of-the-google-debate-12948701-p6.html?printPagedArticle=true#pageIndex_6
Ian Bogost, "Hyperemployment, or the Exhausting Work of the Technology User" http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/hyperemployment-or-the-exhausting-work-of-the-technology-user/281149/
Karen Gregory's response to Ian Bogost: http://digitallabor.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2013/11/17/hyperemployed-or-feminized-labor/
Franklin Foer, "Amazon Must Be Stopped" http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119769/amazons-monopoly-must-be-broken-radical-plan-tech-giant
Rob Horning’s comments from Internet Subjects: #Uberwar and the “Sharing” Economy. New Museum and Rhizome 06/19/14 http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/marginal-utility/sharing-economy-and-self-exploitation/ )
From Dorothy Howard
The following are less readings than events/things or image-scapes that might be read in tandem with our readings thus far. Something to peruse in the background:
Swiss Institute “All that is Solid Melts Into AirBNB” 11/23/14 http://swissinstitute.net/event/panel-everything-that-is-solid-melts-into-airbnb-with-alessandro-bava-andrea-branzi-rachael-yu-and-aaron-taylor-harvey-of-airbnb-hosted-by-airbnb-pavilion-fabrizio-ballabio-alessandro-bava-luis/
Alex Felton. Zzz. October 10-November 10, 2014 http://zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.net/
The Guggenheim Musem’s Instagram http://instagram.com/Guggenheim
Neal Stimler “New and Familiar Pilgrimages: Viewing the Cloisters with Google Glass.” http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/office-of-the-director/digital-media-department/digital-underground/2014/google-glass-at-the-cloisters
III
"Hacking" the Art World?
10/19/14
7:00pm
55 Washington St. New York, NY 11201
McKenzie Wark
Designs for a New World, e-flux
Jaron Lanier
on Siren Servers Selections from Who Owns the Future, Simon & Schuster 2013
Carter Cleveland
Carter Cleveland Says Art in the Future Will Be for Everyone
WSJ, date
Claire Evans
This Isn't a Kickstarter, It's an Art Show
and the associated Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ksouth/exhibition-kickstarter
Dan Duray
They Clicked With Investors—Now What? Who Will Win the Race to Sell Art Online?
TK, TK
Julia Halpern
As the Battle for the Online Art World Sharpens, How the Players Are Adapting Artinfo, 12/18/2012
II
Content Management: Museum and/or Database
9/30/2014
7:30 PM
55 Washington St. 5th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201
Jill Lepore
The Disruption Machine: What the Gospel of Innovation Gets Wrong, New Yorker
Boris Groys
Entering the Flow: Museum Between Archive and Gesamtkunstwerk, e-flux
JiaJia Fei
Digital as a Dimension of Everything, The Exhibitionist Blog, http://the-exhibitionist.com/digital-as-a-dimension-of-everything/
The Internet is the New Lower East Side, The Exhibitionist Blog, http://the-exhibitionist.com/the-internet-is-the-new-lower-east-side/
Mission Over Permission, The Exhibitionist Blog, http://the-exhibitionist.com/mission-over-permission/
Daniel Palmer
Share and Share Alike: Museums and the Digital Image Explosion (Part 1), The Exhibitionist Blog, Date
Share and Share Alike: Museums and the Digital Image Explosion (Part 2), The Exhibitionist Blog, http://the-exhibitionist.com/share-and-share-alike-part-ii/
Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri
“Network Production”
selection from Empire, 2000, 294-297
I
CBIC I
8/28/2014
7:00pm
397 Bridge Street 7 FL Brooklyn, NY 11201
Few corners of the art system remain untouched by the utopian solutionism of tech entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley logic. Rhetoric about “liberation,” “transparency,” and new “disruptive” digital models have begun to dominate debates that have raged in the arts for centuries, from the museum’s relationship to the public, the artist’s position in the art market, and the role of pedagogy and criticism in an ever-expanding, ever-commercialized art world. Recently several well-known examples have sparked passionate arguments from all sides. But is the art system broken? And who, exactly, is rushing in to fix it? And what are their interests? Cloud-Based Institutional Critique aims to be a forum for discussion of digital technologies and their relationship to arts institutions, with a particular focus on both their theoretical underpinnings and the practical applications of various new models now in existence. We debate among a diverse set of perspectives on the question of art/tech in order to better understand implications for artists, writers, and arts professionals. Cloud Based Institutional Critique is always free and never livestreamed.
Readings:
Alexander Galloway
"What Can A Network Do?"
Spike Magazine, Vol. 39 - 2014
Phillip G. Altbach
MOOCs as Neocolonialism: Who Controls Knowledge?
Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/04/2013
Caitlin Dewey
Can Kickstarter Save Arts Education?
The Washington Post, 08/04/2014
Susan Duffy
Three Lessons Learned in Creating Gender-Balanced Entrepreneurship
The Wall Street Journal, 08/19/2014