Society Must be Hacked Symposium

The March 5th symposium Society Must be Hacked: Revisiting Foucault in a High-Tech World coincides with the grand opening of the art exhibition in the former Wolvenplein Prison, and focuses on the abiding relevance of French poststructuralist Michel Foucault’s work on power, discipline, surveillance, and resistance. The resonances between Hacking Habitat’s themes and Foucault’s theoretical legacy are numerous – evidenced in the exhibition’s setting in the decommissioned prison, in our creative investigations of technological surveillance and control, and in our exploration of the modes of resistance – of ‘hacking our habitat(s)’ – that underscore the art manifestation as a whole. After all, ‘hacking’ isn’t limited to cracking digital codes, but includes every form of intervention in a world where virtual and physical realties meet. Hacking is using an instrument in another way than was originally intended, and such figurations of hacking ring through in Foucault’s writings on power and resistance:

“As soon as there is a power relation, there is a possibility of resistance. We can never be ensnared by power: we can always modify its grip in determinate conditions and according to a precise strategy. (Foucault, “Non au sexe roi,” Dits et Ecrits 3, Paris: Gallimard, p.267)”

Set against Hacking Habitat’s investigations of institutional power, systemic violence, and resistance, Foucault’s statement points to the importance of both critical and transformative explorations.

Date & Time: Saturday 5 March 2016. 10.00 – 17.00.

Confirmed Speakers: Professor Shannon Winnubst (Department of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University) and dr. Marc Schuilenburg (Department of Criminal Law & Criminology, VU University Amsterdam). Panels/workshops TBA.

for more information visit: www.societymustbehacked.nl/symposium