by Jana Astanov
photograph, Jana Astanov “What does it represent?”, 2015
Part of “Traces Of Life” group show curated by Fang Yu Liu and Kathie Halfin.
On view Oct 17 – Nov 16 @ The Hive Community
The show advocates and reflects on data privacy and the social impact of the Internet and technology.
Exploring the rhetoric of the pose
In 2015, with Hannah Wilke’s inspired photograph I started exploring the rhetoric of the pose, and history of the feminist movement within the cultural, social, and political contexts.
While in Hannah Wilke’s “What does it represent…? What do you represent…?” from 1978 she displayed a question “What does it represent?”, my project comes with the awareness of empowerment beyond mirroring her choice of symbols relevant to the prevalent cultural ideology, and American feminist movement of the 70s. My work is a cultural commentary relevant to the current times and referencing the technological empowerment that we are given in form of the internet and crypto currencies (the set of computers in my photograph have been used to mine over half a million $ worth of bitcoin as of 2015).
The choice of books is significant. Politics, technology, religion within the Western society are predominantly male domains. Whereas computer technology, the latest addition to the human civilization advancements, was driven by female mathematicians during its inception stage, and while it remained an obscure, low paid occupation. Once the axis of money and status shifted the new industry’s gender imbalance became apparent turning from quasi gender neutral to the sphere of male dominance.
The red ribbon seen throughout the photograph is an element of I.P.P.R. (International Party for Proportional Representation) a series of performance art works I performed between 2014-2016 referencing socialist values of equality and shared resources, while the ribbon also represents the bloodlines and menstrual blood as in the Red Temple project drawing from the connection to nature (moon cycles, living in harmony with the earth, women circles, mutual support as the basis of survival).
Acculturation to Americanisation
In my work Wilke’s controversial pose is transmuted. I am not an American, therefore the Polish and Central European heritage comes with a different set of values. My early socialisation excluded entirely behaviours related to consumerism which I had to learn once I moved to France as a teenager. There is a significant psychological difference between cultural norms acquired as a child and those learnt later. It’s relevant to mention the process of acculturation the generations of people born under communism were subjected to and the consequences of the economic shock doctrine imposed on the ex Soviet bloc countries by the international financial institutions. Suffice to mention the terrifying statistics of rocketing suicides rates, social inertia, generational unemployment and human trafficking.
I am consciously making a reference to the aesthetic of hacking that overlaps with the aesthetic of revolution and punk rock (80s cultural resistance against communist system in Poland), and replace the Hollywood fueled concept of romantic love with a symbol of real human connection (women Moon circles of the Red Tent tradition vs Americanisation of the global culture).
There are additional symbolic representations and references: bare injured foot covered in bandage vs Wilke’s high heels, hoodie vs nakedness, books vs trinkets, red ribbon vs heart.
Monopoly = Censorship
Finally – photograph as a medium, a tool of propaganda or control? And who controls the media? What are the media? What are they to us? The subsequent waves of the internet brought shifts towards active engagement but within the framework of social media outlets controlled by the industrial military complex (NSA / Facebook, issue of totalitarian control – NSA, issue of monopoly – Facebook / Instagram, Google / YouTube). I have shared this photograph in a facebook conversation with Brad Evans, UK political philosopher, and instantly got blocked – it was temporary (lasted around 1h) nevertheless, the software recognised the photoshop treated Kalashnikov. Those social media blocks – often as it happens to me unexplained, or blamed for my unusual ways of using the software – are a form of censorship and control as our conversations are recorded and monitored by the AI algorithm. The AI dispassionately informs you that you violated the terms of service by posting nudity, or using bots. But often, you did not do any of it, and you still get blocked – unexplained, mysterious rejection by the panopticon, acting as a fortress of moral conduct and internet laws. Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher and social theorist formulated this designed concept in the 18th century as a perfect prison which allows all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates being able to tell whether they are being watched. The concept of panopticon is seemingly reaching its final stage of evolution and totality through the controlled internet structures: hierarchical and centralized monopoly of the tech giants.
Algorithmic Fuel
Underneath the data and algorithms there is money. In the film “The Social Dilemma” we are being told the truth that has been known to us for quite some time: that our data is being used by the tech giants as part of their monetization strategy. This truth has been spelled out to us in another film “The Great Hack” released in 2019, which tells the story of how Cambridge Analytica manipulated the 2016 US Presidential Election, amongst many other political events.
But money does not control the algorithm, it’s the algorithm that has the advantage in enticing divisions, and hate leading to the increasing polarisation of the society, and in some cases such as Burma also genocide initiated by the Facebook campaigns, see The New York Times “A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military”. Isn’t it enough to force some control over the social media monopolies? One can easily imagine the genocide would / ought to / should / must bring the reactions from the international bodies, some sort of intervention and control… But, nothing of the sort happened, and won’t happen… We shall not expect the most powerful corporations to self regulate either. That is not in their survival DNA, or their survival code if you prefer. Their code of conduct is survival at any cost. Human, political, economic.
Silicon Valley as the Society’s Conscience?
Having freelanced as a digital marketing specialist for many years to support myself as an artist, this is a topic that I am particularly interested in. Although social media was originally created with the intention of connecting people, through its development, it has become a huge money making machine that alienates us, and fosters tribalism into our claustrophobic lives through the endless scroll. The fact that the most popular social media channels – Facebook and Instagram – are in the hands of one company creates profound antitrust concerns, if we were to consider monopoly laws. However US tech companies, the richest companies in the history of the world, seem to be beyond the law, and continue their practices uninterrupted by any governmental body. I personally know two Silicon Valley insiders who open up about the data manipulation in “The Social Dilemma”. My concern with all these men, and I would like to highlight the fact that there are all men, is that they have spent the last 20 years making money from us all, and yet now they are ready to become the society’s conscience, after they have taken their profits. In my humble opinion, following anti monopoly laws, putting a cap limit to personal wealth, and giving the people back their data is the least we can ask for from the tech giants.
The impetus for my project stems from the fact that by and large, women aren’t encouraged to pursue, or aren’t in general interested in the tech / coding / data industries as much as men. It’s the culture obviously, the gender culture and pink and blue education to use a mental shortcut. Consequently the tech industry, within which I also include hacking and cryptocurrency, are male-dominated. Since big money these days lies in tech, and throughout 2020 there have been seismic developments in the cryptocurrency world which through defi (decentralized finance) has as its goal, slow but persistent elimination of traditional banking, I would like to present a project that addresses the issue of data through the notion of access to data, and information, and what it values within the society and the social groups we are part of. In my experience I have found that women are often not interested in financial literacy or understanding how to manage their own money, this despite it being a crucial component of equality. Understanding why that is and finding a way forward is of deep interest for me. As part of my conceptual video work I would like to present a very easy and straightforward tutorial on how to start your basic cryptocurrency investment curated by The Hive Community as part of the group show “Traces Of Life”.
Meet me on October 23rd, 8-9:30 pm, during Zoom LIVE performance art event including:
Cayla Skillin Brauchle @caylaskillinbrauchle
Ursula Endlicher @ursulaendlicher
Jana Astanov @jana_astanov
Zoom link:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89893515253?pwd=cFJJc3FLMHhZUDN6Zno2L29PMkFHQT09�
Meeting ID: 898 9351 5253
Passcode: 469370
The show “Traces Of Life” advocates and reflects on data privacy and the social impact of the Internet through the layers of video conference space. Cayla Skillin Brauchle’s “We the…” is a participatory movement sequence for democracy that responds to the current pre-election climate. Ursula’s “interACTions, live” re-enacts the Internet terms in the data performance with Yuki, Kawahisa. Jana’s “DeFiFem” is a collaborative performance challenging the patriarchal system in the tech industry and cryptocurrency.
My previous data driven new media projects in collaboration with a developer Rolf van Gelder:
#loveU #hateU 2017
Poetry Hopscotch 2016
Bio:
Jana Astanov is an interdisciplinary artist, a poet and an independent curator born in Poland, and living in the US. She is a founder of CREATRIX Magazine, portal for creative expression focused on art, activism and spiritual practice. Her work includes photography, poetry, performance art, sound art, and installation. In her work, she utilizes spiritual traditions, somatic movement, sound art, ritualistic theatre and Astrofeminism, a term she has developed through her character Yannanda The One Who Speaks With The Stars. Together with her partner Niko van Egten she co-created an electronic music group ASTRALOOP featuring her poetry in dark electronic arrangements. She has performed at Tate Modern, Smack Mellon Gallery, Grace Exhibition Space, Venice Biennale, Documenta 2017, and many other galleries, festivals and independent venues worldwide. She is also the author of five collections of poetry: Antidivine, Grimoire, Sublunar, The Pillow Book of Burg, and Birds of Equinox. Website: http://www.janaastanov.com
