Conrad Weise is a Cologne/Cluj based designer and researcher. In his work he looks at socio-political settings where he locates computation and its implications. Through investigative and computational approaches from within these systems, his works attempt to contextualise the intransparent and uncertain arrangements. His current research focuses in particular on the hidden labour and automated engagement within computational systems.
Prompts several large language models to perform the political compass test. Exploring how digital tools inherit and potentially reinforce the biases of the internet, challenging the role of the computer as a judging apparatus and prompting reflection on the algorithmic impact on socio-political landscapes.
2023—ongoing, w/Kjell Wistoff Exhibited at:Canvas Fingerprints as Operational Images showcase the invisual infrastructure of the extraction logic of what the internet’s fragile foundation is based on -- they reveal the messiness of digital capital and question the prevailing technological deterministic thought of today. ⇝ www
2022—ongoing, Exhibited at:A research project designed for the experimental disclosure and artistic investigation of Amazon's retour infrastructure with an interest to dissolve its information asymmetry and reveal the spatial workings of the company. ⇝ www
2021—ongoing, w/Kjell Wistoff Exhibited at:Reflects on the hidden labour within computational systems and locates the simulated engagement of group control systems within surveillance capitalism as a subversion to it. This work finds great inspiration within the field of digital anthropology and takes a cultural approach: it treats the lived experiences of people involved in the production of automated engagement and group control systems as the subject for theorising the complicated structures of contemporary digital capital. ⇝ www
2021, Exhibited at:Reflects on the performative conditioning of interfaces (and its users) and explores information asymmetry as a shared standard. The installation is a spatial representation of Apple’s original slide to unlock user interface element. ⇝ www
2020Performs a standard Turing test via establishing a conversation with the exhibition visitor and an Amazon mechanical turk worker—creating a connection between the fauxtomation and socio-political implications of machine learning. ⇝ turing-test.git ⇝ slides ⇝ recording
2019, Exhibited at:Performative installation which questions while entering an exhibition space: Is the current space physical or digital? Are these actions public or private? Are you a human or a (ro)bot? ⇝ captcha.git
2019, Exhibited at:
Since the beginning of computation it’s physicality has become
increasingly smaller and since Gordon Moore’s famous prediction
computation became almost transparent. In today's information age,
it is easy to forget about the socio-political presence of
software, when algorithms are used by the local police to predict
where next crimes will happen, huge logistic warehouses are
organized by the machine’s preferences and hype technologies
consume more electricity than entire countries.
While these computational systems are often camouflaged as being
objective or neutral, the underlying processes are anything but.
At the core software development is about the interpretation of
inclusion and exclusion.
This work looks at the origin and manifestation of computation and
how it is reinforcing highly rational ways of thinking, which do
not integrate into the complex world around us. ⇝
translation.pdf
translation-of-computation.git
Since the beginning of computation it’s physicality has become
increasingly smaller and since Gordon Moore’s famous prediction
computation became almost transparent. In today's information age,
it is easy to forget about the physical presence of software, when
user interfaces blend completely into their environment,
fiber-optic cables lay deep in the pacific, and almost everything
is stored in the cloud.
For now the incomprehensible world of computation was reduced to
the inner workings of integrated circuits or machines. But with
spaces like Amazon fulfillment centers its rationality and
opaqueness is mapped onto our physical space.
This work places computation in the center of the architectural
and spatial discourse and explores how computation is actively
structuring physical and relational space. ⇝
topology.pdf
Synchronizes different camera inputs based on human pose estimation w/ @tensorflow ⇝ self.git
2018, Exhibited at:Provides a way to interactively and critically examine the reinforcement of our opinions and how we contribute to conversations.
2017