My Behavioral Surplus

The permeation of digital technology in all areas of life has led people to increasingly shift their entire personality into the digital domain. In the “age of surveillance capitalism” (Shoshana Zuboff), we have become an important source of raw material for corporations like Google, Amazon and Facebook which earn enormous profit from user data and algorithmically generated behavioural predictions.

Based on ideas proposed by the economics scholar Shoshana Zuboff, the Stuttgarter Kollektiv für aktuelle Musik (Stuttgart collective for contemporary music) wishes to explore the new possibilities and opportunities of digital self-determination at the interface of art and science. The interdisciplinary festival “My Behavioral Surplus” features interactive artistic and discursive formats which address the dimensions and social repercussions of digitalisation and data capitalism. The exhibition venue Wagenhallen in Stuttgart will present an exemplary cyber village by ATOMOX, a “digitopia” which performatively envisions a new cyber society. The project draws on an idea by the network artist Joana Moll who suggests organising virtual space into localised zones in order to promote more sustainable, environmentally friendly social relationships. The data, provided voluntarily by the visitors and detached from all economically exploitative methods, will be incorporated into interactive installations, concerts, musical improvisation and multimedia performances. Workshops and presentations on digital ethics, data-spotting and coding will offer visitors the opportunity to consider their own relationship to the digital domain and develop strategies for engaging with digital technologies.

Artistic director: Nikola Lutz
Project manager: Marcus Kohlbach
Artists: César Bernal, Remmy Canedo, Chi Him Chik, Melody Chua, Bernhard Eusterschulte, Stefan Leibfahrt, Joana Moll, Shusha Niederberger, Dalius Singer, Kay Zhang and others