Abstract BY Sylke René Meyer

Advancements in technology are often perceived as drivers for social progress. At the same time, technology frequently enables a minority to wield power over non-Western, non-white, and non-heteronormative masculine communities that have only limited access to advanced technologies. What Lyotard terms the phallocracy of high tech actually disenfranchises most of the world’s population while putting forth an ideology of superiority. Under the pretense of data neutrality, superior intelligence, and high-tech mastery, this ideology prevents ‘other’ voices from being heard.

In this course, I suggest a user-centric approach towards prototyping as artistic practice. Without dismissing high-tech’s power, we will think about prototyping as a process towards final implementation. The narrative forms produced in a low-fi environment shall be perceived as temporal perfections. Low-fi is participatory, fast, and allows for unalienated creation. It is participatory by avoiding the intimidation of high tech and expert cultures, as well as the economic restriction of access to expensive technology. It is fast by allowing for rapid creative response to social contradictions of the moment. It is unalienated because it enables the creator(s) to understand and perform each step of the production process. Free from isolating divisions of labor and the fragmentation of the creative process in hierarchical production, low tech/low-fi cultures offer a practice of collaborative and participatory processes.

> Dienstag, 29. Juni, 14:30 – 15:15h  > Programm