Conrad Weise is a Cologne/Cluj based designer of computer equipment*, artist and researcher. In his work he looks at socio-political settings where he locates computation and its implications. Through sensibility from within these systems, his works attempt to contextualize the insecure and uncertain arrangements. His current research focuses in particular on automated engagement within computational systems and the dependencies of software’s material operations and intrinsic narratives.
Software that facilitates the downloading of video content that has not been viewed yet. Exhibited as a video installation that displays a montage of the dataset on an inaccessible screen.
2024—ongoingPrompts several large language models to perform the standard political compass test. This computational method not only reduces the political dimensions of the test taker, but also projects the political approximation of critical design approaches in its memetic form.
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