Kuai Shen: “Viral Ecologies. The Parasite, the Social Contagion and the Internet”

In his KISDtalk on April 19, Kuai Shen, media artist and designer, will analyze the correlation between biology and technology.

Kuai Shen’s talk “Viral Ecologies. The Parasite, the Social Contagion and the Internet” is inspired by Gabriel Tarde’s theory of imitation (Gabriel Tarde was one of the leading French sociologists in the 19th century). It will discuss the relationship between human-made technology and biology. Who controls the host, who is good in camouflage and mimicry, and who eventually fails or wins in tech(no)-ecology? Self-reproduction and deceit characterize both the mimic in natural systems and the virus in computer systems. Technology is made by humans for humans.

But this technology, in some of its manifestations, resembles behaviors of other living species – including natural processes of decomposition, infection, and parasitism.

The KISDtalk will be held in English.

www.kuaishen.tv