Art in the Age of Crowd Sourced Production

On June 25th at 7pm I am moderating the event: Art in the Age of Crowd “Sourced” and “Funded” Production, a presentation by Stephanie Rothenberg, at Supermarkt, Brunnenstrasse 64, 13355 Berlin

Crowd-sourcing – a portmanteau of crowd and outsourcing – has become an increasingly popular online format for getting just about anything done in a short amount of time. What is the role of crowd-sourcing and its newer sidekick, crowd-funding, in contemporary forms of production? How are these participatory platforms impacting the cultural sphere and broader global environments?

Stephanie Rothenberg, an artist based in Buffalo, NY, will present a series of projects created individually and in collaboration that explore the cultural and economic dimensions of various modes of crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding participation. She’ll begin by selling you a pair of designer jeans manufactured in a virtual sweatshop. This will most likely be followed by a public inquiry about your sexual fantasies using an adult entertainment website that will outsource these personal secrets to an anonymous global workforce.  And to keep that warm fuzzy feeling, you can make a charitable online donation to her “telematic” garden and watch your financial data be exchanged from the developed to the developing world. Whether online or offline, these mixed-reality situations call into question the outsourcing of labour, desire and empathy in a socially mediated world.

Programme: 1 hour presentation followed by 30min Q&A and discussion. This presentation is introduced and moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli, independent curator and researcher on hacktivism and network culture.
Read more here