Exhibition

Tracing the Geometry of Cyberwar

08.09. – 31.12.2023

Virtual exhibition and research space with works and texts by Jessikka Aro, Sarah Buser, fantastic little splash, Judith Hanke, Olga Krykun, Svitlana Matviyenko, Tactical Tech, Susan Sontag, and further research material by Center for Spatial Technologies.

In its current project, Prater Digital deals with the role played by the Internet and digital technologies in Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. In this context, new strategies of warfare, which are increasingly based on automated and cybernetic means, are being established. Contrary to what we may think, modern cyber warfare does not take place in virtual space alone, but develops in places where digital communication and military actions merge.

The “Tracing the Geometry of Cyberwar” exhibition focuses primarily on the dissemination of images and data in the cybernetic logics of the Internet. In this highly commercialised online space, images and news from the war mix with advertising, memes and other content. The monitoring and analysis of social networks and the targeted dissemination of images and disinformation on the Internet serve to control and enforce narratives about the war and the events of the war among the public. At the same time, however, images are also of great importance for the strategic planning of operations and their investigation.

Inspired by the research of scholar Svitlana Matviyenko, the artistic positions and discursive texts in the exhibition move along three paths (vectors) of cyberwarfare – targeting people and infrastructure in occupied Ukraine, focusing on Ukraine’s supporter countries, and including Russia itself.

EXHIBITION OPENING HOURS AND PROGRAM

The exhibition is supervised Mon. – Thu. 10 – 4 pm, if you have any problems or questions regarding the exhibition, call us at 030 90295-3812 or write us at info@pratergalerie.de.

TEAM
Curator: Tereza Havlíková
Concept, design, and programming Mozilla Hub gallery space: Sarah Buser and Judith Hanke
Prater Galerie: Katharina von Hagenow, Lena Prents and Julie Rüter
Graphic design: Judith Weber
Copy editing: Carola Köhler
Sound recording: studio brod
Narrator: Lucy Jones

Jessikka Aro

Jessikka Aro, Putins Armee der Trolle. Der Informationskrieg des Kreml gegen die demokratische Welt, Goldmann Verlag, part of the Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe GmbH, Munich 2022. Translation into German according to the US edition “Putinʼs Trolls. On the Frontlines of Russiaʼs Information War Against the World”, Ig Publishing, New York 2022. The German edition was published in agreement with Jessikka Aro and Elina Ahlback Literary Agency (Helsinki). The original Finnish edition was published in 2019 by Johnny Kniga Publishers under the title “Putinin trollit − Tositarinoita Venäjän infosodan rintamilta”.

Center for Spatial Technologies

The Center for Spatial Technologies is a group of architects, researchers, and educators, predominantly based in Kyiv, Ukraine, who develop solutions for spatial problems; hacking economic, technological, and political infrastructures to shape the future city. Currently, the team works on projects analyzing civilian damage caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

fantastic little splash

The fantastic little splash collective was founded in 2016 by journalist/artist Lera Malchenko and artist/director Oleksandr Hants. Its works revolve around utopias and dystopias, collective imagination, and its projections and uncertainties. They combine these topics with approaches from image and media studies. Projects by fantastic little splash have been exhibited at transmediale, post.MoMA, Plokta TV, Ars Electronica, Liste Art Fair Basel, Construction festival VI x CYNETART, KISFF, and Docudays, among others. The collective participated in the transmedial x Pro Helvetia Residency 2022.

Olga Krykun

Olga Krykun studied at the supermedia studio and at the studio for painting at the UMPRUM art college in Prague. During her studies, she completed internships at the National Taiwan University of Arts, the University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, and the T.E.I. in Athens. Her work “Remembering the Old World” has been nominated for the StartPoint prize. In 2022 she received the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize. Olga Krykun works mainly with video, painting, and objects, which she assembles into complex installations. Olga Krykun creates her own contemporary mythology by combining fictional stories with cultural and social symbols of the present day. In doing so, she deals with topics such as identity and the fragmentation of society, as well as with internal tensions and fears.

Svitlana Matviyenko

Svitlana Matviyenko is an assistant professor of critical media analysis at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Her research and teaching activities focus on cyber warfare, digital militarism, Soviet and post-Soviet technopolitics, nuclear colonialism, and the arming of the energy infrastructure during the Russia-Ukraine war. She is co-author of “Cyberwar and Revolution: Digital Subterfuge in Global Capitalism”, winner of the 2019 book prize in the Science Technology and Art in International Relations category of the International Studies Association, and of the Gertrude J. Robinson Book Prize of the Canadian Communication Association 2020. Her text “Terrorumgevungen” was recently published in German in the anthology “Aus dem Nebel des Krieg. Die Gegenwart der Ukraine” (Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2023).

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag (1933 – 2004) was a writer, critic, filmmaker, playwright and professor. She wrote numerous book-length essays, novels, and plays. Some of her most famous works deal with AIDS and disease, photography, aesthetics, and morality. During the Vietnam War, she traveled to Hanoi in 1968, and during the Yugoslav War in 1993, she left for Bosnia and lived in Sarajevo for three years during the siege of the city. Her work has been recognized by numerous awards and scholarships, including the Rockefeller Foundation Grant, the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society.

Tactical Tech

The Tactical Technology Collective, or Tactical Tech for short, brings together artists, hackers and activists and was founded in Amsterdam in 2003. The collective is growing steadily and has opened informal offices worldwide, from Amman to Brighton to Bangalore. In 2012, the extended international team found a permanent home in Berlin. Since its inception, Tactical Tech has developed hundreds of interventions and resources in collaboration with local partners and employees around the world. These freely accessible resources promote media and digital skills and deal with topics such as misinformation and disinformation, technology and crises, and data and political influence.

Sponsored by:

Media partner:

With kind support from:

Prater Digital