The Dark Sides of Digital Humanism

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Claus Pias and McKenzie Wark – in conversation with Clemens Apprich

Humanity has always been digital. Practices of counting, calculating, and writing are all digital, and define the ‘human’ as much as supposedly analog techniques such as painting, doing philosophy, or making music. Considering recent attempts to reintegrate human values into the digital, in order to build, regulate and develop future technologies, we will explore what the human in digitality could mean.
Bringing together international scholars in critical media studies, we will discuss central topics of digital humanism. How can we define digital humanism? What are its dark sides? And what role can the humanities and arts play in shaping the debate?