Strike

Almost every day we may use online map services to help us navigate areas we’re not familiar with or select a new face filter to produce a creative selfie. Although we now take digital applications for granted, we are often oblivious to the fact that they are based on practices which are inextricably tied up with the military. From the early days of aerial photography to drones fitted with cameras, from camouflage to modern facial recognition, from agriculture to the exploitation of other planets, the military has played a major role in developing photographic methods and elaborating the uses to which the visual data they yield can be put.

SITUATIONS/Strike focuses on eight artistic, scientific and curatorial positions as a means to examine the increasing entanglement of civil and military technology. Where did these technologies originate? What happens when photographic media are deployed operatively for the purposes of tracking (and tracing), identifying and monitoring individuals or controlling machines engaged in surveillance and military activities? What are the options for undermining these mechanisms?

With works by Lisa Barnard, Michael Kempf, Jussi Parikka & Abelardo Gil-Fournier, Kate Rose, Anika Schwarzlose, Shinji Toya and Angela Washko.

Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, SITUATIONS/Strike will be presented exclusively online. Eight positions will be put out on consecutive Tuesdays over a period of two months at situations.fotomuseum.ch. The cluster SITUATIONS/The Right to Look will be extended and accessible in the museum’s exhibition space until 18.10.2020.