React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism

​Contemporary networked image cultures cannot be understood outside of platform capitalism. Today, the production, distribution and reception of visual media is largely managed and controlled by the algorithmic infrastructures, corporate policies and business models of digital platforms. At the heart of platform architectures is the quantification, evaluation and monetization of reactions – whatever we encounter online is designed to trigger our reactions, and our reaction patterns in turn drive the visual economies of platform capitalism. With algorithmically curated feeds and personalized content, what we get to see online and how we react to it is inextricably linked in ways we can often only speculate about.

​Bringing together scholars and artists from a range of fields and backgrounds, the international conference «React & Respond» aims to map and analyze these contemporary economies of networked image cultures and their aesthetic, ideological and political implications.

​Following an opening night with a screening at Kino Xenix on Thursday, October 2nd, the conference will continue on Friday, October 3rd, at Cabaret Voltaire and conclude on Saturday, October 4th, at the Fotomuseum Winterthur.

​The conference is organized by the DIZH Bridge Professorship Digital Cultures and Arts at the University of Zurich and the Zurich University of the Arts in cooperation with Fotomuseum Winterthur, Kino Xenix and Zentrum Künste und Kulturtheorie (ZKK).