Public Talk: Can AI Demand Rights?

by Ebru Yetiskin | Sunday 29nd of October 17:00 - 18:00

The subversive use of algorithms and artificial intelligence within art and design practices in different cultural geographies calls for emerging discussions about speculative futures, alter-modernities and alternative legacies of technology. This talk explores, through theoretical, artistic and design approaches intensified recently in Istanbul, how can automatas and AI from various cultural and historical backgrounds critically address ever-elusive problems of contemporary societies. Introducing her conceptual approach about “paratactical curating”, Yetiskin will critically ask: Can a robot become a citizen? How does a poet-robot or a curator-robot act in repressed cultures? If European humanism introduced automatas for entertainment and awe, how can we shift our media historical focus on creating unconventional imaginaries by way of these emerging artistic and theoretical approaches?

Assoc. Prof. Ebru Yetiskin is an Istanbul based independent curator, sociologist and media theorist, who critically work on the interaction of science, technology and art. She teaches at Istanbul Technical University. She curated media art related exhibitions entitled, Cacophony (2013), Code Unknown (2014), Waves (2015), Contagious Bodies (2015) and Illusionoscope (2017) in Istanbul. In 2015, she also directed and curated Plugin New Media Section of Contemporary Istanbul. Since two years, she has been curating seminar and performance series on digital culture and art, “Contagious Bodies: Network Politics in Data Driven Worlds” in Akbank Art Center and “Today’s Art: Yet Another” in Borusan Contemporary Museum. In 2016, she edited a book of poetry, “Like The Others,” written by a robot, Deniz Yılmaz; and curated an autograph session in Istanbul Art and Book Fair. She has been one of the invited speakers of Transmediale Festival For Art and Digital Culture in 2013 and 2017. Recently, she introduced a curatorial approach, “paratactical curating.”

Events will only be in English