Michael Seemann: Knowing Is Asking the Right Questions
"Proposition: In the Old Game, it was important who was storing which information and to what purpose. But what counts in the New Game, by that measure, is how information is retrieved. This shift of focus does not only change our attitude towards knowledge, but also touches on the power structures inherent in any kind of knowledge."
(Michael Seemann, 2014, p.25)
Michael Seemann (2014). 'Digital Tailspin: Ten Rules for the Internet After Snowden'
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Exhibition about the use of self-education as an emancipation tactic
Exhibition: "Really Useful Knowledge", 29 October 2014 – 9 February 2015 / Sabatini Building, Floor 1, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.
"The notion of 'really useful knowledge' emerged at the beginning of the 19th century alongside the workers' awareness of the need for self–education. In the 1820s and 1830s, working class organisations in the UK introduced this phrase to describe a body of knowledge that encompassed various 'unpractical' disciplines such as politics, economy and philosophy, as opposed to the 'useful knowledge' proclaimed by business owners who had previously begun to invest more heavily in their companies' progress through financing workers' education in 'applicable' disciplines like engineering, physics, chemistry and mathematics. In this reference to the long–forgotten class struggles of early capitalism, the title of the exhibition suggests an inquiry into 'really useful knowledge' from a contemporary perspective.
The exhibition endeavours to position the notion of critical pedagogy as a crucial element in collective struggles, and explore the tension between individual and social emancipation through education with examples that are both historical and current, and their relation to organisational forms capable of leading unified resistance to the reproduction of capital. In doing so, the exhibition highlights the collective utilization of public resources, action and experiments, either forgotten or under threat of eradication, taking the museum as a pedagogical site devoted to the analysis of artistic forms interconnected with actual or desired social relations."
(Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
The power of visualising data through motion information graphics
"They say knowledge is power, but how do we make knowledge powerful? The challenge of communicating information becomes especially difficult when trying to convey a message full of complex data, which is often difficult to interpret quickly and clearly to the naked eye. This motion graphic looks at some of the many visual techniques used by Column Five to communicate information effectively to a large audience."
(Column Five)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
