Public programme: Something between us

As human beings, we belong to various social networks. Based on our interests, experiences, feelings or beliefs, we enter into connections with others or distance ourselves from them. Algorithms and filters influence our perception, although we are not really aware of how they work. The works by Rodrigo Alcocer de Garay, Paule Hammer, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Moritz Liebig and Johanna Maj, presented in the exhibition Something between us at GfZK – Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, examine the assumptions and expectations that underlie our relationships and how an individual’s position and behaviour can change depending on their (digital) environment.

This public programme features workshops, lectures, talks and screenings that engage with and expand upon the questions raised in the exhibition. Participants will explore the aesthetics of digital communication, its societal impact, and various issues related to platform capitalism.

Johanna Maj Schmidt is an artist and social scientist. She is currently doing a PhD on how elements of heroism are expressed in right-wing internet memes. In a workshop, she will provide insights into the meme culture of the far right. Fabian Schäfer, Japanologist and media scientist, conducts research on the digital transformation of the political public sphere, with a particular focus on social bots, hate speech and the linguistic normalisation of new right and right-wing populist discourses in Japan and Germany. In a lecture, he will present his concept of “connective cynicism”. Using memes and other internet phenomena, he explores how transgressive humour is used for profit, and how anti-democratic discourse strategies are employed for political ends. The Else-Frenkel-Brunswik Institute (EFBI), based at Leipzig University, researches and documents anti-democratic attitudes, structures and activities in Saxony. In a public talk, it will present an overview of current research findings related to the themes of the exhibition. Among other projects, journalist Marie Zinkann contributes to the podcast Breitband by Deutschlandradio Kultur, covering topics such as digital policy and artificial intelligence. In her contribution, she presents open-source services as alternatives to the dominant social media platforms. A series of screenings, organised in cooperation with the project (Un)Learning Digitalities, a programme for theory and practice of the digital at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB), presents time-based digital works that explore speculative forms of storytelling and critically engage with the ideological foundations of digital technologies. The artists Rodrigo Alcocer de Garay and Paule Hammer will present their works in public discussions.

All dates and information on the exhibition and accompanying programme can be found online here.

The public programme accompanies the exhibition Something between us and is conceived by Franciska Zólyom in collaboration with Hanar Hupka and Sabine Weier.

The screening series Aurora Digitalis is an extension of the weekly HGB cinema Aurora and is initiated as part of (Un)Learning Digitalities with Clemens von Wedemeyer (Expanded Cinema class) and Eliza Goldox (Artistic Associate) of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig in cooperation with the GfZK.