Post Democracy: Indigeneity, Stack, Sovereignty
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Thursday, March 2, 6:30 – 8:30
Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street
With the flow of finance, people, and influence across national borders undermining the traditional sovereignty of the nation-state, this event explores alternative ways that we might think about the definition and role of how a space is delimited and ruled. The conversation considers new technologies including the structure of “the stack” as described by theorist Benjamin Bratton. In several texts Bratton describes the relationship between different types of automated calculation such as mobile apps, smart cities, and cloud platforms amongst others. In recent years Bratton, as well as other academics and artists, have developed substantial discourse around this term, considering how these seemingly invisible structures that inform and underpin our everyday lives operate in ways that are akin to older, more familiar models of the market and the state and also how they differ. This panel brings those conversations together with the history and contemporary moment of the No DAPL protests, one of the largest gatherings of indigenous nations in one place that has gained significant momentum and visibility in the news to fight the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Participants include theorist Benjamin Bratton, writer Tyler Coburn, anthropologist Jaskiran Dhillon, as well as artists Nobu Aozaki, Adelita Husni-Bey, and Daniel Sauter (moderator).
Photo : Tyler Coburn, “I’m that angel,” 2012 –, book and performance. Detail: EasyStreet Online Services Data Center, Beaverton, Oregon; reading: 17-18 January 2014, in collaboration with Disjecta. Credit: Lincoln Barbour. Courtesy of the artist and EasyStreet On