Spring Season Issue 74 | Chilean Cloud: Transient Cybersyn, Social Upheavals, and Forensic Investigation

CVSZ 2021 Spring Season — Online Panel No.74

Chilean Cloud: Transient Cybersyn, Social Upheavals, and Forensic Investigation

Time:

New York Time (ETS) February 27th 9:30--11:30

London Time（GMT) February 27th 14:30 --16:30

Beijing Time February 27th 22:30--00:30

Location:

Zoom,

YouTube Live

Bilibili Live

Host:

Cao XueFei, Cai Yixuan

Guest Speaker:

Martyna Marciniak,  Xiong Jie 

Unit Planning: Cao Xuefei |  Editor: Cao Xuefei

Producer: Xu Di | Research director: Weng JingYan

Online Panel Synopsis:

In 1971, a bearded British IT theorist Stafford Beer traveled from the UK to Chile to work for the Socialist government of Allende on the Cybersyn Project - an experiment of digital democracy that blends ‘computational center’ with ‘autonomous collaboration’. Unlike capitalist countries, such as the U.S with large computational industries of military and space programs, Chile had to distribute only 500 unused telex machines for the national network of real-time data from factories to decision-making systems. With limited sources and society-oriented distribution, how different groups shared information, generated decisions, participated in activities, and distributed power in the cyber-control room and outdoors was crucial.

Socialist Chile aimed to take a different cybernetic path from the Soviet Union, and most of its ideas was provisionally generated by citizens through communication-feedback in a control room. The experiment soon ruined by the coup of Pinchot three years later. The military dictatorship overthrew this practice and opened the way to neoliberalism. Pinchot made a number of autocratic market adjustments during this period: actively responding to the international blockade of the U.S, enhancing the free flow of capital, reducing trade barriers, liberalizing markets, and privatizing public services such as health care and transportation. Although the government turned democratically elected in the 1990s, its neoliberal market-oriented model deepened. Pinchot unleashed a "Latin American oasis", and GDP growth resumed, but four decades of neoliberalism exacerbated class stratification and wealth inequality.

In the case of the student protests in 2019, which were triggered by an increase in transport fares, the neoliberal government dealing with its citizens' problems with technological control. Unlike the Allende government attempted to share technology with the public, the government is now using technology to displace protesters, such as military tear gas, which has been tacitly approved in disbanding the protests. The "normalization" of tear gas constructs the rationality of one-way technological control rather than technical distribution and coordination. Meanwhile, the international NGO Forensic Architecture applies digital technology to the Chilean case to analyze the irrationality of the police's use of tear gas by 3D modeling, geolocation, and fluid-dynamics, etc. In this panel, we hope to discuss the application of technology in different ideologies, the process of forensic investigation and justice, and the distribution of technology in power.

Guest Speaker Introduction:

Martyna Marciniak is a researcher At Forensic Architecture involving analysis of police aerial and bodycam footage. She joined Forensic Architecture in November 2018 and previously worked as visualiser and exhibition designer. Most recently she completed and exhibited a series of sculptures, and a film, as part of her residency at the Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau. She completed RIBA Parts I and II at the Bartlett School, University College, London, in 2017. Her graduation project and thesis explored the idea of Spatio-temporal storytelling, embodiment, and architectural allegories, employing animation, film, writing, and model-making. She taught at the University of Westminster and the University of Greenwich.

Xiong Jie is a senior fellow of the Sichuan Institute of High-Quality Development. He is a well-known opinion leader in the China IT industry. He translated professional books such as Refactoring and Implementation Patterns, which have millions of readers in China. He published many articles in Programmer Magazine and InfoQ website. He spoke in technical conferences such as QCon and TiD, regarding software quality, team capability building, innovation management, etc. His book A History of Agile in China is the first publication systematically summarizing the history of Agile methodology in China’s IT industry. His recent translation Cybernetic Revolutionaries is the first publication introducing Cybersyn, the big data project that happened in Chile, 1970s.

CVSZ 2021 春季单元 — 专题第74期

智利之云：赛博协同，社会革命与法证调查

✦时间：

2月27日美国时间 EST 9：30--11：30

             伦敦时间 GMT 14:30 --16:30

             北京时间22：30--00：30

✦地点：

Zoom会议

Youtube直播 

BiliBili直播

✦主持人：曹雪菲 蔡艺璇 

✦嘉宾： 

法证建筑 (Forensic Architecture) Martyna Marciniak

熊节 Xiong Jie 

✦单元策划：曹雪菲 | 本期编辑：曹雪菲

✦出品人: 徐頔 |  研究室主任: 翁静妍

✦对话概述

1971年，留着大胡子的IT理论家Stafford Beer从英国不辞远方来到智利，为阿连德社会主义政府实践赛博协同项目，即一种粘合了“控制”与“协同”的多方数字民主实践。不同于资源储备雄厚的北美英国，彼时智利只有五台计算机，在这有限的资源中，人们如何在赛博协同控制室与户外谋划决策、参与活动、分配权力则显得至关重要。

社会主义时期的智利想走不同于苏联的控制论道路，其大部分想法决策都是通过控制室的交流-反馈中由民众产生的。而好景不长，三年后，独裁政府推翻了这短暂的实践，也开启了新自由主义之路。皮涅拉在此期间做了许多独裁式的市场化调整：积极应对北美国际的封锁，增强资本自由流动，减少贸易壁垒，使市场自由化，医疗交通等公共服务私有化等。尽管在90年代该政府转为民选，但其新自由主义市场导向模式进一步加深了。皮涅拉开启了“拉美绿洲”模式，GDP恢复增长，而四十年的新自由主义道路加剧了国内阶级分层、贫富差距。

2019年的学生抗议导火索是公共交通的价格上涨，在这个事件中，我们看到自由市场导向的政府却以技术控制来处理民众问题。不同于阿连德政府技术分享给民众的方式，时下政府采取技术驱逐人民，即使用在驱赶抗议中已被默许的催泪弹。催泪弹的“合理化”默许了单向技术控制的合理性，也将技术更转为单向控制，而非分配协同。与此同时，来自国际（英国）的NGO组织法政建筑，在五十年后，同样带着数字技术来到智利，使用3D建模、地理定位、热动力学分析等方式分析警察使用催泪弹的不合理性。在此，我们希望讨论不同意识形态下对技术的应用，法证过程与正义，以及技术在权力当中的分配等问题。

✦嘉宾简介

Martyna Marciniak

Martyna Marciniak是法证建筑研究员，负责分析空中警方视频和随身摄像头的片段。她于2018年11月加入Forensic Architecture，此前曾担任视觉师和展览设计师。最近，她完成并展出了一系列雕塑和一部电影，作为她在德绍包豪斯基金会(Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau)驻留的一部分。2017年，她在伦敦大学学院巴特利特学院完成了RIBA的第一部分和第二部分。她的毕业设计和论文运用动画、电影、写作和模型制作探索了时空叙事、化身和建筑寓言的理念。她在威斯敏斯特大学和格林威治大学任教。

熊节

四川质量发展研究院资深顾问，中国著名IT意见领袖。翻译的《重构》、《实现模式》《控制论革命》等著作。拥有上百万读者，被誉为程序员必读书目。他在《程序员》杂志、InfoQ网站等线上线下媒体发表了大量文章，在QCon、TiD等技术大会上多次发表演讲，内容涉及软件质量、团队能力建设、创新管理等领域。他的著作《敏捷中国史话》是中国IT业界首部系统总结敏捷方法传入中国及发展演化历程的著作。他最新的译作《控制论革命者》是全球首部介绍1970年代智利大数据项目Cybersyn的著作。

✦主持人简介

曹雪菲

毕业于伦敦大学金史密斯学院，Conversazione撰稿人。曾撰稿于电影媒体、协助独立影展与电影节策划。现关注全球南方历史与思辨 未来议题，研究方向为地缘政治下的技术与文化，中国城市空间与思想变迁。

蔡艺璇

设计师、策展人、创作者。Conversazione 非盈利艺术组织创始人。毕业于罗德岛设计学院建筑系，创作领域涉及建筑设计、短片电影及实验剧场，致力于探索游戏化的剧场空间、媒体技术与空间政治