FUTURE MANIFESTOS – Konferanse
DIGS, Krambugata 2 / 10. & 11. APRIL, 10:00 – 14:30
Gratis inngang.
Kurator: Zane Cerpina
Computer Says No
!Mediengruppe Bitnik [HR/CH/DE]
Computer Says No takes its title from a 2004 Little Britain sketch, but the phrase has since entered everyday language to criticize the careless delegation of important decisions to computers. The expression shifts focus from a computer’s actual decision (“no”) to the opportunity to avoid taking responsibility offered by the purported “objective” machine. From surveillance systems and algorithmic decision-making processes to the growing influence of artificial intelligence – technological systems are not neutral tools. They structure access to social participation, shape perception and behavior, and create novel forms of control. Technological systems are inscribed with power, determining who is heard, who is seen, who is included, and who is not.
In their series “Qwen Stefani Against Techfascism” !Mediengruppe Bitnik imagines what it might look like if celebrity culture mobilized against emerging forms of tech fascism rather than reinforcing them. What would sermons, songs, and commandments against tech fascism look like? What spaces for action remain within digital spaces of control, and how do we use them to resist? Using prompts on different aspects of techno-fascism, the generative AI model Qwen appears as a virtual preacher, speaking out against algorithmic cruelty, spam factories, AI slop, and the exploitation of outrage and hate.
!Mediengruppe Bitnik
!Mediengruppe Bitnik (read – the not Mediengruppe Bitnik) are contemporary artists working on, and with, the Internet. Their practice expands from the digital to physical spaces, often intentionally applying loss of control to challenge established structures and mechanisms.
In the past, they have been known to subvert surveillance cameras, bug an opera house to broadcast its performances outside, send a parcel containing a camera to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and physically glitch a building. In 2014, they sent a bot called «Random Darknet Shopper» on a three-month shopping spree in the Darknets, where it randomly bought items like keys, cigarettes, trainers, and Ecstasy and had them sent directly to the gallery space.
!Mediengruppe Bitnik are Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo. They are based in Berlin.
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Photo credits. Photo representing the talk: !Mediengruppe Bitnik, 2025. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Lucie Marsmann. Portrait photo: !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Studio Berlin, 2022. Photo: Iris Janke / Courtesy !Mediengruppe Bitnik.
