STUDIO BONN. Listening to the Future

Exchange Values
CRYTPO-CAPITALISM (English with German interpretation)
July 15, 8.15pm GMT-1, Live in the Forum of the Bundeskunsthalle

The craze around crypto art and NFTs (non-fungible tokens, i.e. digital certificates of ownership) blurs the boundaries of culture, economy and politics. Does blockchain technology offer ways out of parasitic platform capitalism, in which all users feed the ledgers of tech gigants? Or will it lead to even greater inequality and the complete financialization of human relationships? Artist Hito Steyerl, the cultural scientist Joseph Vogl and the musician Ville Haimala, one half of the duo Amnesia Scanner, discuss the opportunities and risks of a decentralised internet for the arts and democracy.

HITO STEYERL uses the latest control and surveillance technologies as artistic tools. Her highly alert video installations and essays have made her one of the world’s most influential contemporary artists and theorists.

In his book “Kapital und Ressentiment” (C.H. Beck 2021), the philosopher and literary scholar JOSEPH VOGL continues his investigation of the financial industry and shows how its alliance with platform corporations has turned populism into a lucrative business model.

VILLE HAIMALA’s band Amnesia Scanner (with Martti Kalliala) creates sublime, floating stills of information overload full of contradictory signals. Haimala has worked with various artists, for example with Anne Imhof on her current exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.