Vol. 2, Issue 2/2016 - Politics of Big Data

This issue examines the history, current trends, conceptual and philosophical issues of computer-assisted artwork and computer-generated art.

What happened to the 1960s ideas of machine art, cybernetic art, »algorithmic revolution«, and the hopes for a democratization of the art market? How do contemporary art practitioners cope with the political situation and with the attempts of the Silicon Valley giants to appropriate algorithmic generation of art-like artefacts?

This issue aims to discuss how the early concept of computer art is now being reframed as digital, post-digital or algorithmic art under the prevailing conditions of big data, smart AI, an almost all-encompassing surveillance technology and the political state of neo-liberalism.