Exhibition explores complexities of the internet

The internet has become a boundless repository of information, enabling a global exchange of data. Constructed upon an infrastructure of online platforms, fibre-optic cables and data centres, it ushered in the age of planetary scale computation. The design of wireless communication networks became crucial for the way information is controlled.

Whereas the idea behind the founding of the internet was to imagine a space of unrestricted access to information, of civic debate and social inclusion, the actual implementation turned out quite differently. The control over data and networks seems to have become a determining factor of governmentality, considering the ongoing arms race of data accumulation and analytics.

News of privacy breaches, censorship and surveillance have exposed the power struggles that are exercised by governments and corporations alike. Hence, the design of information technology extends not just to how political space is constructed but also to how the content of the political as a domain of human action and ethics is created.

Non Aligned Networks, an exhibition curated by Yeasemin Keskintepe, explores the complexities of the internet as a political space and...