Participation, Sharing, Being Shared: Codes and Scripts of the Ambivalent

workshop steirischer herbst: herbst Academy 2014

Promises of self-empowerment and participation are integral to digital media. It is not only since Edward Snowden’s disclosures that sharing has presented itself as something ambivalent: social networks have created the potential for democratic public opinion and at the same time greater surveillance. This space between sharing and being shared, in which the private is only generated through the public, is the focus of the workshop. Alexander Tuchaček, co-founder of media group Knowbotic Research, proposes a media communication structure in which decentralised forms of participation and withdrawal are tried out. In terms of discourse and performance, it is all or nothing: who shares with whom? Who decides the rules about how, when and what is shared? Are there scripts for the uncoded? Can sharing lead to involvement or participation? Who writes the guidelines?