Seeking Agency. Between Critique and Speculation

Technologies are probably the final social life space of uncritical “progress”-related narratives. In a world of omnipresent crises, new technical solutions are seen as the last resort – even if they are the actual source of one problem after another, ecological and economic, as well as those associated with changes to public space. Cutting across such narratives has become all the more difficult, since technologies (media included) are usually perceived as something that simply works, is based on neutral choices, and carries no political dimension. Perhaps the field of art is the place where relations between technological transformations and societal life have been problematised in ways allowing the underlying processes – unseen and intangible – to be exposed, making power- and control-related issues fully visible. Based on references to selected works, the lecture will explore such activities. Yet in order to move beyond critique, we will also address the speculative dimension of art – artist-suggested visions of better, fairer and more sustainable technologies.