1,576 days, 2,409 entries ...

Newsticker, link list, time machine: HOLO.mg/stream logs emerging trajectories in art, science, technology, and culture––every day
“There is a death drive in all of this. It is a drive to lethality. It is a drive towards self-destruction but also the destruction of all others. That is what underlies these systems.”
This Machine Kills co-host Jathan Sadowski, emphatically rejecting Lavender, an AI system Israel uses to compile ‘kill lists’ of Gazans to target. Drawing a connection to using AI to screen and reject healthcare applicants, Sadowski argues the logic is the exact same, but Lavender “will lead to an immediate kinetic death rather than a somewhat slower social death.”
“3D analysis shows patterns of radial fragmentation on the southwest side of the impact crater, as well as a shallow channel leading into the crater from the northeast. Such patterns indicate a likely projectile trajectory with northeast origins.”
– Research group Forensic Architecture, sharing their preliminary analysis that suggests the al-Ahli Hospital explosion was not caused by a Palestinian-fired rocket, as claimed by Israeli forces

Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko’s permanent installation Voices of Memory (2023, image) opens in the Hall of Remembrance at Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery. A memorial to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which 150,000 civilians and 18,000 insurgents died during a revolt against occupying German forces, it “expresses opposition to all armed conflicts.” In the piece, Wodiczko presents audio of survivors’ testimonials and syncs their traumatic recollections with projections of flickering flames.

OUT NOW:
Antony Loewenstein
The Palestine Laboratory
Journalist Loewenstein follows the money, demonstrating how occupied Palestine is an ‘R&D lab’ for surveillance and weaponry products exported globally by the Israeli military-industrial complex.

An exhibition for the post-truth era, Trevor Paglen’s “You’ve Just Been Fucked by PSYOPS” opens at Pace New York. In it, the American artist charts the “enduring effects of military and CIA influence operations on American culture” through several new works. These include an unknown orbital object photo series, and Because Physical Wounds Heal… (2022, image right), a mixed media—steel, bullets, resin—sculpture that mythologizes the iconography, sloganeering, and abject horror of U.S. psychological warfare.

“Semi-autonomous weapons, like loitering munitions that track and detonate themselves on targets, require a ‘human in the loop.’ They can recommend actions but require their operators to initiate them.”
– Human rights researcher James Dawes, describing how most drones deployed in the Russia-Ukraine war are still overseen by a human. Fearing that’s about to change, activists warn that imminent autonomous weapons “erode meaningful human control over what happens on the battlefield” and will inevitably kill civilians.
M
“Today Taiwan produces around one third of the new computing power we rely on each year. It produces ninety percent of the most advanced processor chips.”
– Historian and policy researcher Chris Miller, contextualizing how catastrophic a Chinese invasion of the island country would be for global production. “Entire segments of industry would grind to a halt,” he warns, in discussion with Demetri Kofinas about his new book Chip War
“Basha’s paintings are dominated by circles, which she creates with her feet, while her lines are created by a painting arm.”
– Critic Hrag Vartanian, describing paintings by Agnieszka Pilat’s robot dog Basha (a renamed instance of General Dynamics’ Spot). Wary of the gimmick, Vartanian writes “these machines … are ultimately not our friends, and humanizing them distracts from their use by authorities to police, control, or kill populations from a distance,”

“Images of Resistance from Elsewhere,” an e-flux Video & Film screening program launches. Exploring the mediation of political struggle, it features films by The Otolith Group, Jocelyne Saab, b.h. Yael, and Mohanad Yaqubi that show conflict “from the point of view of the engaged observer.” Notably, it includes Harun Farocki’s War at a Distance (2003, image), which connects post-Gulf War military trends (missile cams, CGI, etc.) with industry and ideology. The online program runs through Jan 18.

In an interview conducted in the wake of her current solo show, “Twisted,” at New York’s New Museum, American media artist Lynn Hershman Leeson reflects on five decades of interrogating emerging technologies. Known for making poignant statements about surveillance, bioengineering, and AI (image: Seduction of a Cyborg, 1994), Leeson notes that “every single advancement in technology had its base in warfare. There’s an inherent strand in the DNA of these inventions that leads them to assault. We have to cure that.”

To dive deeper into Stream, please or become a .

Daily discoveries at the nexus of art, science, technology, and culture: Get full access by becoming a HOLO Reader!
  • Perspective: research, long-form analysis, and critical commentary
  • Encounters: in-depth artist profiles and studio visits of pioneers and key innovators
  • Stream: a timeline and news archive with 1,200+ entries and counting
  • Edition: HOLO’s annual collector’s edition that captures the calendar year in print
$40 USD