Dear friends of Interface Cultures, you are cordially invited to celebrate with us ‘Sankt Interface Day’ on 7th December 2023.

‘Sankt Interface’ is an artistic project organized by Interface Cultures which serves also as the annual celebration of our department. It is not a coincidence that it is celebrated around every ninth of December, the same day of 1968 when Douglas Engelbart did his ultra-famous conference, known today as “The Mother of All Demos”. At Sankt Interface, academic conferences, artistic performances, exhibitions, concerts and a “Computer Mouse Award” conform a celebration transforming into a happening in which students, professors, and friends of Interface Cultures participate at the same level.

 

This year’s event includes the keynote “Platform Capitalism 4.0” by Marta Peirano, a journalist specialized in technology and power. Among her activities she has founded newspapers, organised cryptoparties, curated biennials and published books such as  “El pequeño Libro Rojo del activista en la Red” (The Little Red Book of Online Activism), an essay on cryptography with a foreword by Edward Snowden, “The Enemy Knows the System”, a text discussing online digital feudalism and political manipulation and her latest book “Against the Future: Citizen resistance to climate feudalism”. She is a well-known public speaker and long-time advocate of free software, digital privacy and the radical decentralization of the critical infrastructure.

“Platform Capitalism 4.0”

It is the best of times and it is the worst of times. The historical cycle that began with the dot-com crisis is now ending dramatically with the trials of Google, Amazon, and Meta for antitrust practices and general toxicity. These 20 years of techno positivism have driven us into a humanitarian, economic, and environmental crisis. However, the advent of chatGPT and the era of AI does not signal the end of the so-called Platform Capitalism but rather a new phase of refinement and specialization. It is then more important than ever to recognize its strategies in order to thrive fairly and sustainably for all.

But Sankt Interface 2023 also includes art performances, the ninth edition of the infamous ‘Computer Mouse Award‘ and a series of live music performances with electronic instruments, as well as some hot DJ sessions, which will close the night. It’s all a must see!