Scaling Connections II - Pizzagate: From Rumor to Delusion & Scoring the Tweet(s)
Film screening, discussion & voice and instrumental improvisation, 15-19:30, 27 January, 2019
For the official cooperation program of transmediale 2019,
Import Projects presents four evenings of lecture-performance, installation, spoken-word performance, discussion, voice & instrumental improvisation, film screening and participatory intervention in dialogue with the festival key question ‘What Moves You?’—referring not only to an emotional response but also to the infrastructures and aesthetics that govern how affect becomes mobilised as a political force today. Foregrounding the continuum which links rare-earth elements, raw materials, hardware, software, and even cognition, the event series Scaling Connections turns around the blurred boundaries between organic and inorganic, intelligence, artifice, art, and resistance.
SCALING CONNECTIONS draws from Deep History reminding us to constantly observe reasoning commonly internalised and conducted according to strict principles of validity, an appeal not only for viewing natural history and that of human culture but also for seeing our cognitive and psychological history. A critical debate over the last decades has stimulated sensitisation for interdisciplinary research and further historical interpretations, for instance focusing on trends and processes, drawing attention to connections and traditions and a shared substance, like deep kinship, able to reveal striking transformations in human behaviour. Reaching back to the beginning of life itself, to the primordial sandwich as proposed by the chemist Günter Wächtershäuser in 1988, fostering surprising connections. Deep History advocates to revive the foundation of humanity by scaling up from the molecular to the molar without the bias and in the process decentres humankind’s position. The central question of the event series is how the future of our brains—in the role of a constitutive element of freedom of choice—could look against the backdrop of a deeper understanding of our history in relation to today's ever-closer wiring with technologies. Curated by Anja Henckel
# 15:30 FILM SCREENING (40min)
Pizzagate: From Rumor to Delusion
Directed by Warren Neidich, Co-directed Ashiq Khondkar
# 16:30 PROVOCATIONS & DISCUSSION (ca. 60min )
DANIEL KELLER
artist/
polarised global societies, technological change, issues at intersection of economics, technology, culture, and collaboration
ASHIQ KHONDKER
Co-director, editor, musician, artist/
focus entwining of interfaces, spaces of self-narrativity, specifically the “Diegetic Desktop”
WARREN NEIDICH
Director, producer, artist, writer, theorist/
focus emerging political conditions of late-stage cognitive capitalism, neural technological revolution, concepts in cognitive neuroscience, immaterial labor operating in knowledge economy
Timo Feldhaus
journalist and author, background literature, sociology and comparative literature at the published regularly nation/ international newspapers and magazines, previous editor DE:BUG, developed online platform Spike Art Quarterly, since 2017 editor-in-chief of the Volksbühne Berlin
# 18:00 PROVOCATION (30min)
DR JOSCHA BACH
Joscha Bach, Ph.D. is a cognitive scientist and AI researcher focused on cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, and learning. He earned his Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He is especially interested in the philosophy of AI, and in using computational models and conceptual tools to understand our minds and what makes us human. Joscha has taught computer science, AI, and cognitive science at the Humboldt-University of Berlin, the Institute for Cognitive Science at Osnabrück, and the MIT Media Lab, and authored the book “Principles of Synthetic Intelligence” (Oxford University Press). He currently works at the Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and AI Foundation in San Francisco.
# Pizza Party
# 19:00 VOICE & INSTRUMENTAL IMPROVISATION (60min)
Scoring the Tweet(s) performed by
TATIANA LOPEZ
Visual artist, researcher, musical teacher and board member of the Experimental Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments (OEIN) focus on expressive forms of Bolivian indigenous traditions, especially music and textiles, strongly influence her creative work.
SATCH HOYT
Interdisciplinary artist, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, composer, makes sculptures, paintings, drawings and installations accompanied by sound, sonicity and music are his prime focus in projects like Afro-Sonic Mapping: Tracing Aural Histories via SonicTransmigrations, worked on numerous conductions with Butch Morris, 15yrs Flautist/Percussionist chair in the NYC based band Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber
IRENE KURKA
Multifaceted soprano, focusses intensively on the repertory for unaccompanied voice, 2018 world premieres by Walter Zimmermann, Johannes Schachtner, Christina C. Messner a.o., inaugurated podcast for new music: “neue musik leben”
Carlos Gutiérrez Quiroga
Member of the Experimental Orquestra of Indigenous Instruments (OEIN). His work is concentrated especially in teaching, composition, film music, creation and developing of new musical instruments and research of Bolivia’s indigenous music, rated as one of the “most innovative in the field of Bolivian art music”
KOEN NUTTERS
Musician and composer of experimental music, part of many bands and ensembles such as: The Pitch, Konzert Minimal, DNK Ensemble, The Lucio Capece Trio, And / In, Post-Music, Mammoth, and The New Silence.
RISHIN SINGH
Artist and musician, performed and exhibited widely, composed for musicians and ensembles including the Quiet Music Ensemble (IE), Umbral Festival (MX), Claire Edwardes (AU), and Dante Boon (NL). He leads and composes the music for the band s o n g s
CARTER WILLIAMS
Composer and performer, focuses on new and experimental music, draws inspiration from interaction between media, technology, performers and audiences. As a performer, he is committed to revival of the viola d’amore, featured at major international festivals and new music centers
An entangled and psychedelic tale of truth and fiction. The experimental documentary film PIZZAGATE: FROM RUMOR TO DELUSION tracks two separate events surrounding the Pizzagate scandal with very different cultural results. The first emphasises the delusional behavior of James Welch who believes that there was a child sex ring at Comet Pizza Ping drove his car up from North Carolina to rescue them. The second concerned the right wing hysterical reaction by the discovery of Marina Abramovic's work in the course of the investigation of the pizza parlour. Spirit Cooking attended by the brother of Hillary Clintons campaign manager John Podesta and art collector Tony Podesta was deemed a satanic ritual and went viral on right-wing news feeds.
SCORING THE TWEET(S) (2018) an improvisational sound work by Warren Neidich - a performative improvisation using cut and paste method first devised by William Burroughs and Brian Gyson, to alter 196 tweets of Donald Trump that mention Fake News were used to first create poetic verses and then transferred to music composition paper where they created a graphic score. Six musicians are instructed and choreographed to visit each score at designated times and perform it. The work expresses the power of poetry and improvisation as forms of political resistance.
Click here for more information about Scaling Connections
A cooperation between transmediale and Import Projects. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
Stay informed
SCALING CONNECTIONS draws from Deep History reminding us to constantly observe reasoning commonly internalised and conducted according to strict principles of validity, an appeal not only for viewing natural history and that of human culture but also for seeing our cognitive and psychological history. A critical debate over the last decades has stimulated sensitisation for interdisciplinary research and further historical interpretations, for instance focusing on trends and processes, drawing attention to connections and traditions and a shared substance, like deep kinship, able to reveal striking transformations in human behaviour. Reaching back to the beginning of life itself, to the primordial sandwich as proposed by the chemist Günter Wächtershäuser in 1988, fostering surprising connections. Deep History advocates to revive the foundation of humanity by scaling up from the molecular to the molar without the bias and in the process decentres humankind’s position. The central question of the event series is how the future of our brains—in the role of a constitutive element of freedom of choice—could look against the backdrop of a deeper understanding of our history in relation to today's ever-closer wiring with technologies. Curated by Anja Henckel
# 15:30 FILM SCREENING (40min)
Pizzagate: From Rumor to Delusion
Directed by Warren Neidich, Co-directed Ashiq Khondkar
# 16:30 PROVOCATIONS & DISCUSSION (ca. 60min )
DANIEL KELLER
artist/
polarised global societies, technological change, issues at intersection of economics, technology, culture, and collaboration
ASHIQ KHONDKER
Co-director, editor, musician, artist/
focus entwining of interfaces, spaces of self-narrativity, specifically the “Diegetic Desktop”
WARREN NEIDICH
Director, producer, artist, writer, theorist/
focus emerging political conditions of late-stage cognitive capitalism, neural technological revolution, concepts in cognitive neuroscience, immaterial labor operating in knowledge economy
Timo Feldhaus
journalist and author, background literature, sociology and comparative literature at the published regularly nation/ international newspapers and magazines, previous editor DE:BUG, developed online platform Spike Art Quarterly, since 2017 editor-in-chief of the Volksbühne Berlin
# 18:00 PROVOCATION (30min)
DR JOSCHA BACH
Joscha Bach, Ph.D. is a cognitive scientist and AI researcher focused on cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, and learning. He earned his Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He is especially interested in the philosophy of AI, and in using computational models and conceptual tools to understand our minds and what makes us human. Joscha has taught computer science, AI, and cognitive science at the Humboldt-University of Berlin, the Institute for Cognitive Science at Osnabrück, and the MIT Media Lab, and authored the book “Principles of Synthetic Intelligence” (Oxford University Press). He currently works at the Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and AI Foundation in San Francisco.
# Pizza Party
# 19:00 VOICE & INSTRUMENTAL IMPROVISATION (60min)
Scoring the Tweet(s) performed by
TATIANA LOPEZ
Visual artist, researcher, musical teacher and board member of the Experimental Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments (OEIN) focus on expressive forms of Bolivian indigenous traditions, especially music and textiles, strongly influence her creative work.
SATCH HOYT
Interdisciplinary artist, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, composer, makes sculptures, paintings, drawings and installations accompanied by sound, sonicity and music are his prime focus in projects like Afro-Sonic Mapping: Tracing Aural Histories via SonicTransmigrations, worked on numerous conductions with Butch Morris, 15yrs Flautist/Percussionist chair in the NYC based band Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber
IRENE KURKA
Multifaceted soprano, focusses intensively on the repertory for unaccompanied voice, 2018 world premieres by Walter Zimmermann, Johannes Schachtner, Christina C. Messner a.o., inaugurated podcast for new music: “neue musik leben”
Carlos Gutiérrez Quiroga
Member of the Experimental Orquestra of Indigenous Instruments (OEIN). His work is concentrated especially in teaching, composition, film music, creation and developing of new musical instruments and research of Bolivia’s indigenous music, rated as one of the “most innovative in the field of Bolivian art music”
KOEN NUTTERS
Musician and composer of experimental music, part of many bands and ensembles such as: The Pitch, Konzert Minimal, DNK Ensemble, The Lucio Capece Trio, And / In, Post-Music, Mammoth, and The New Silence.
RISHIN SINGH
Artist and musician, performed and exhibited widely, composed for musicians and ensembles including the Quiet Music Ensemble (IE), Umbral Festival (MX), Claire Edwardes (AU), and Dante Boon (NL). He leads and composes the music for the band s o n g s
CARTER WILLIAMS
Composer and performer, focuses on new and experimental music, draws inspiration from interaction between media, technology, performers and audiences. As a performer, he is committed to revival of the viola d’amore, featured at major international festivals and new music centers
An entangled and psychedelic tale of truth and fiction. The experimental documentary film PIZZAGATE: FROM RUMOR TO DELUSION tracks two separate events surrounding the Pizzagate scandal with very different cultural results. The first emphasises the delusional behavior of James Welch who believes that there was a child sex ring at Comet Pizza Ping drove his car up from North Carolina to rescue them. The second concerned the right wing hysterical reaction by the discovery of Marina Abramovic's work in the course of the investigation of the pizza parlour. Spirit Cooking attended by the brother of Hillary Clintons campaign manager John Podesta and art collector Tony Podesta was deemed a satanic ritual and went viral on right-wing news feeds.
SCORING THE TWEET(S) (2018) an improvisational sound work by Warren Neidich - a performative improvisation using cut and paste method first devised by William Burroughs and Brian Gyson, to alter 196 tweets of Donald Trump that mention Fake News were used to first create poetic verses and then transferred to music composition paper where they created a graphic score. Six musicians are instructed and choreographed to visit each score at designated times and perform it. The work expresses the power of poetry and improvisation as forms of political resistance.
Click here for more information about Scaling Connections
A cooperation between transmediale and Import Projects. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
Stay informed
