ABOUT
Ephemerals is a Brussels based curatorial initiative that aims to counter and queer AI surveillance technologies by showcasing discursive art practices in texts, exhibitions, talks, and screenings.AI algorithms can discern and identify groups of people and target them with ads, fake news, political messages, or even weapons. These technological novelties increase the power of private companies and governments, intensify polarization, and disproportionately affect marginalized identities. They are therefore a major threat to privacy, civil liberties, social justice, and democracy.
Ephemerals wants to raise awareness and contribute to the ethical discourse around AI surveillance technologies by showcasing art practices that critically engage with these issues and imagine alternative possibilities.
A PROJECT BY
Yorgos Karras is an art historian, communication specialist, and photography enthusiast interested in how art intersects with social change, technology, and queer theory. He explores how artistic practices can shed light on the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies, and how these shape power, influence societies, and affect marginalized communities. He examined art as a tool for social and political change in the work of the Japanese collective Provoke (1968–1970), analyzing their anti-authoritarian and avant-garde use of photography as a way to challenge hegemonies and imagine new realities. He later worked on a PhD project focused on artificial intelligence and surveillance studies through subversive contemporary art and queer theory.
Yorgos holds a Bachelor in Communication from Erasmushogeschool Brussel and a Master in Art History and Archaeology from the Free University of Brussels (VUB). He gained experience through roles at argos, centre for audiovisual art, Privacy Salon, the Free University of Brussels (VUB), the Brussels Museum of Mill and Food, and non-profit organizations.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Suzanne Cleerdin (aka Mandy Pixel) is a Brussels-based DJ and audiovisual artist, weaving together sound, visuals and text to create experiences that defy conventional boundaries. With a background spanning studies in Sociology, Media Arts, and Fine Arts (at KASK, Ghent), Suzanne’s creative work and curation delves into themes of memory and its intersections with violence, while always seen through a queer lens, exploring narratives that challenge conventional norms and perceptions. It leads to sets, events and work where sonic landscapes intertwine with visual narratives, traversing known and disruptive territories. Besides working on her own artistic and curatorial projects, such as a monthly residency at Kiosk radio and the organizing of monthly concerts in Brussels, Suzanne also performs live in acts that can best be described as sonic storytelling. Additionally, her work extends to involvement in various (new) media projects of other artists, serving as a director or production assistant or sound designer for films and dance performances.
Noah Heylen is a Brussels-based artist-researcher specializing in digital infrastructure, new media art and military technology. He holds a Master in Fine Arts from KASK, Ghent and studies Remote Sensing. His master project focused on the use of throwaway vape batteries within small drones for military use. He worked as Project Manager for Gluon - platform for art, science and technology. Throughout his writings, audiovisual installations and sculptures, Noah analyzes hype culture and military aesthetics.
Antoine Simeão Schalk is a Swiss-Brazilian curator based in Geneva and Berlin, working within the intersection of visual and sonic practices. A Master graduate in Fine Arts from the Geneva University of the Arts HEAD-Genève, he has been interested in the materialization of theory through bodily practices. Antoine has worked as performance curator for FdS – Festival artistique des affects, des genres et des sexualités in Lausanne, a platform to discuss body politics and shifting identities. Bodies as possible sites for political imagination have constituted one of his axis of research, whether in exhibition or in performing art spaces.