Algorithmic Misfits – Ben Landau
12.05.2016 – 21.05.2016

What does your online behaviour reveal? Have you noticed that the internet gives you exactly what you need? Do you hide your activities from algorithms which might be ‘watching’? Does the internet really know us better than we know ourselves? Artist Ben Landau invited us to participate in Algorithmic Misfits, a roaming discussion series introducing experts in the bewildering world of data privacy.

Spending time on the internet is rewarding because it delivers what we want. However this is no accident. Increasingly, algorithms bias what we see and hear, according to what ‘they’ want us to buy, believe, or actually be. As a self-confessed internet junkie, Ben is disturbed by how narrowly he is typecast, the intention of his controllers, and how little of the ‘splinternet’ he actually sees.

Algorithmic Misfits introduced audience members to professionals on both sides of the internet privacy war – algorithm nerds, freedom fighters and obsessed academics, who will help untangle what’s real and what’s fiction. Even considering known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns (to borrow a Rumsfieldian expression). How can we ever be truly free on the internet?

This project was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

ALGORITHMIC MISFITS
12-21 May
RMIT Design Hub Gallery

Roaming discussions left every 20 min Thursday – Saturday at 2pm, 2:20pm, 2:40pm, 3:40pm, 4pm, 4:20pm and 4:40pm

Only Truth: A Symposium on Internet Privacy

Part CryptoParty, part symposium, Only Truth was a series of talks and practical guides that equipped the average internet user with information and open source tools to protect their communication, privacy, and security.

Speakers discussed Australian metadata capture, the ethics of digital privacy, and how our algorithm-effected online life is changing our offline selves. The practical guides focused on Australian metadata and simple tools for mobile devices and personal computers to encrypt or protect your information. Only Truth also provided a platform for audience members to ask questions and discuss issues raised in Algorithmic Misfits.

Speakers included Jon Lawrence (Executive Officer - Electronic Frontiers Australia, Inc).

ONLY TRUTH: A SYMPOSIUM ON INTERNET PRIVACY
18 May, 6 - 8:00pm
Multi-Purpose Room, Level 1
RMIT Design Hub

Part of Next Wave Festival 2016

Wheelchair access available.
Please contact hello@designhub.com if you would like to request any of these events to be AUSLAN interpreted.