DNL #8: DEEP CABLES.  Keynote NETWORK EXPOSED with Henrik Moltke & Trevor Paglen
Channel: Disruption Network Lab
Date: 2016-07-13

Disruption Network Lab
An ongoing platform of events and research on art, hacktivism and
disruption in Berlin

Berlin, June 17-18, 2016: 
DEEP CABLES - Uncovering the Wiring of the World
Eighth Event of the Disruption Network Lab, Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin, Studio 1.

Web: http://www.disruptionlab.org/deep-cables/
Twitter: @disruptberlin Facebook: /disruptionlab

Artistic Director and Curator: Tatiana Bazzichelli
Programme Manager: Claudia Dorfmüller
Programme Manager: Kim Voss

Credits:
Disruption Network Lab Berlin - www.disruptionlab.org
Video by Rofsofilms - www.rofsofilms.com
CC Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Video thumbnail: photo by Maria Silvano

Friday June 17, 2016
17.00-18.30 · KEYNOTE
NETWORK EXPOSED: CHARTING THE INVISIBLE

Henrik Moltke (investigative journalist, DK/USA), Trevor Paglen (artist and geographer, USA). Moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli (artistic director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE).

In August 2015 Henrik Moltke and a team of journalists from Pro Publica and the New York Times revealed intimate details of the National Security Agency's decades-long partnership with the telecom giant AT&T. A seemingly innocuous detail in a random document allowed the team to pin down the elusive collaboration, referred to by codename in the documents leaked by Edward Snowden. A cable severed by the 2011 earthquake in Japan caused an outage, after which NSAs ‘collection’ - or tap - on the cable resumed. The date matched the repair on the northern leg of the Japan-US Cable, one of a handful of main arteries connecting Asia and the US. At the end of the cable is an anonymous looking industrial building, far off on the Mendocino coast of Northern California. The cable station is operated by AT&T. Under the motto “Follow the cables”, Henrik Moltke recounts how he retraces the physical footprint of deep state secrets.

In this presentation, Henrik Moltke and Trevor Paglen will trace a link between the imaginary concept of “The Internet” and the present configuration of geopolitical wired structures, where big data, cloud computing, mass surveillance, and the monopolies of big corporations are intertwined. By disclosing through photography the development of transatlantic and undersea fibre-optic cables, and reconnecting the past with the present by charting the hidden infrastructure of information technology, this event will expose the inner functioning of the modern business of cable infrastructures, showing the global dimension, as well as the invisible sites of the physical Internet.

More info: http://www.disruptionlab.org/deep-cables/