Trevor Paglen, Image Operations. Op.10, 2018 (Video Still, 23 min.), © Trevor Paglen
Alexander Kluge, “Wenn ich Roboter wär ...“ (with Helge Schneider), 2018, © Kairos Film 2018
Giulia Bruno and Armin Linke, Court of Justice of the European Union, Interpretation booth during the “Day of Europe”, 2018, © Giulia Bruno and Armin Linke, 2018
Filipa César, Textile/Text (research image for Das Neue Alphabet), 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

Jan 10–13, 2019

The New Alphabet – Opening Days

Installations, performances, concerts

Jan 10–13, 2019

Are binary code, algorithms, and DNA the alphabets of today? The current explosion of knowledge is accompanied by the segmentation of the world into the smallest units. The binary code – with only two elements the greatest abstraction of the alphabetical principle – makes the polymorphism of the analog calculable.

Projects in synthetic biology and artificial intelligence are based on an interpretation of life as code that can be decrypted and thus manipulated. How objective are data? How do they reproduce existing structures of power and property? What is suppressed? Who dominates the new order of knowledge? And which ethical questions are raised by these alphabetizations? What happens between 1 and 0?

Until 2021, The New Alphabet will spell out both utopias and dystopias. In performances, concerts, talks, films, and installations, the Opening Days will explore instants of alphabetization from the Baroque to the present day.

With Emily Apter, Kader Attia, Joana Barrios, Sandeep Bhagwati, Filipa César, Ann Cotten, Kate Crawford, Lorraine Daston, Simon Denny, Karin Harrasser, Yuk Hui, Alexander Kluge, Sybille Krämer, Armin Linke & Giulia Bruno, Yucef Merhi, Trevor Paglen, Maria Odete da Costa Soares Semedo, Helge Schneider, Slavs and Tatars, Felix Stalder, Hito Steyerl, Yoko Tawada, Joseph Vogl, and many more

Curated by Bernd Scherer and Olga von Schubert