Code 2023: Reclaiming Digital Agency
CODE is a project initiated in response to the growing concern that we are losing agency over the digital tools and platforms we use on a daily basis. Organised by IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] (Utrecht) together with Werktank (Leuven), Privacy Salon/Privacytopia (Brussels) and Transmediale (Berlin), CODE brings together artists, non-artists, politicians, policy makers and researchers from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands to engage in dialogue, critical discussion, and artistic intervention. The aim is to influence public policy at national and international level, by creating awareness and defining ways in which we can improve laws and legislation to protect us as digital citizens and consumers. In 2023, CODE received over 100 applications, on the basis of which 28 participants have been selected to closely work together in a co-creation process. At PublicSpaces, you will get a taste of some of the projects that CODE has delivered so far.

Turning Tables

Turning Tables is a new card game that turns Big Tech into Fair Tech. It’s fun to play, and along the way you’ll turn the tables on Big Tech power and pick up inspiring ideas from critical thinkers. The Turning Tables deck is an alternative to traditional decks that reflect medieval power structures. In some important ways our world is not so different from the Middle Ages: instead of the kings, queens and clans, we now have got big tech companies and their CEOs reigning supreme. Turning Tables invites you to engage this world in a critical way. The deck follows most of the structure of a traditional card deck, but it has some special additional features. For instance, there are 12 Good Jokers: authors, activists and creative thinkers who inspire us to use technology in a positive way, so we can reclaim our digital rights. Once the tables are turned, a worker in an Amazon distribution centre can beat Jeff Bezos, for instance. Come play the game where the users have more power than Apple and Google, and Big Tech turns into Fair Tech!
 

Dream Machine by Jan Zuiderveld

Motivated by his fascination for the fast developing field of artificial intelligence, Jan Zuiderveld attempts to shed light on the profound processes underlying the AI methods transforming our world by looking at the subject through both a creative and scientific lens. Through his work, Jan hopes to uncover hidden relationships between man and machine, the analogue and the digital, the organic and the mechanical. Above all, he aims to raise awareness of the power of machine learning as a tool for enhancing creativity – even for those who do not think of themselves as creative. With Dream Machine, a hacked 00’s Xerox photocopier, Jan creates a space where people can interact with a creative machine. Come draw with us!