Lecture & Talk with Iyo Bisseck, Alexia Achilleos

Alexia Achilleos and Iyo Bisseck explore the impact of technology on power and control structures as well as colonial dynamics. Both artists approach these topics from a local perspective - Bisseck focuses on surveillance technologies in France in her lecture "The Drone behind the Falling Star", while Achilleos examines the role of AI, colonialism and geopolitics through artist games. Following the lectures, the artists will discuss with Aileen Derieg.

Iyo Bisseck
The Drone behind the Falling Star

The spatial consideration of territories, particularly with regard to access to and the influence of surveillance technologies, raises questions of the domination and control of bodies and spaces. This approach shows how these technologies perpetuate colonial domination and inequality. Starting from a local perspective, such as the situation in France, particularly during the Olympic Games, we can understand this analysis globally by tracing the historical roots and evolution of these tools. Finally, we will explore initiatives to promote international coalitions, instruments of solidarity and community mobilization.

Biography: Iyo Bisseck is a multidisciplinary artist, interaction designer and programmer. Born in 1994, she lives in Paris and works in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Her artistic practice combines immersive digital environments, sculptural installations, animated images and video games. Her work is driven by critical reflections on digital tools, highlighting their roots in a capitalist and colonial logic. After experiences in scientific laboratories where she explored the limits of artificial intelligence through the creation of virtual agents, Iyo Bisseck decided to anchor herself in spaces of collective organization such as Dreaming Beyond AI and Matri-Archi(tecture).

Alexia Achilleos
Exploring AI, colonialism, and geopolitics through artist games
 

This talk is about the artistic exploration of colonial processes in Silicon Valley, geopolitics and local power dynamics in AI from a postcolonial and feminist perspective. Cyprus, a postcolonial island at the crossroads of the Eastern Mediterranean, is a hybrid space between East and West. Against this backdrop, Alexia Achilleos' current artistic practice seeks to engage with local communities to critically examine the experience of living in the semi-periphery of the global AI ecosystem. An important part of this are artistic games that explore the colonial processes of AI in a local context and aim to develop a critical AI literacy in a non-academic way.

Biography: Alexia Achilleos is a Cyprus-based Finnish-Cypriot artist and researcher with a background in visual arts, archaeology and cultural studies. Alexia is interested in the power dynamics that influence technology in relation to history, culture and geopolitics. Through the use of AI processes and the analysis of data, she aims to explore these issues from a local perspective and with a postcolonial and feminist angle. Her work reinterprets dominant narratives and challenges preconceptions found in history, society, but also in AI technology itself, specifically questioning the notion of technology as universal and objective. Alexia is a PhD student at the CYENS Centre of Excellence in Cyprus, where she conducts artistic research on colonialism and AI, and a research assistant at the Media Art & Design Research Lab (MADLab) of the Cyprus University of Technology.

Credits

As part of the Feminist AI lecture series in cooperation with the queer-feminist art festival "entangled homes" by FIFTITU% and the Kunstuni Campus Exhibition 2024. Curation: Manuela Naveau, Oona Valarie Serbest, production: Sandra Krampelhuber, Rebekka Hochreiter, Barbara Jazbec

Photo Iyo Bisseck © Sarah Coppet
Photo Alexia Achilleos © Alexia Achilleos

Funding information: The project is part of the queer-feminist art festival "Entangled Homes" by FIFTITU%, which takes place as part of the Ars Electronica Festival 2024. Funding is provided by the Cultural Directorate of the Province of Upper Austria, Linz Kultur, the Women's Office of the City of Linz and the BMKÖS. The festival is financially and organizationally independent of Ars 2024. ©FIFTITU% 2024

Organization: Kunstuniversität Linz

Address: Hauptplatz 6 Glashörsäle, 6. Stock

Locality: Linz 4020 Austria

7. September 2024