Buongiorno lista,<div><br></div><div>scriviamo per annunciarvi il nostro ultimo lavoro, 'A Crowded Apocalypse'. In questo progetto abbiamo utilizzato il crowdsourcing per generare delle teorie cospirazioniste. Il lavoro e' online ed e' visibile a</div>
<div><a href="http://www.iocose.org/works/a_crowded_apocalypse">http://www.iocose.org/works/a_crowded_apocalypse</a>
</div><div><br></div><div>Sul sito potete ripercorrere la genesi delle teorie ed il loro sviluppo, che ha portato nella sua ultima a fase al crowdsourcing di 'proteste' globali contro le teorie generate dallo stesso crowd.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Abbiamo avuto modo recentemente di discutere di alcuni dei concetti legati al nostro lavoro con Marc Garrett, in questa intervista</div><div><a href="http://andfestival.org.uk/blog/iocose-garrett-interview-furtherfield">http://andfestival.org.uk/blog/iocose-garrett-interview-furtherfield</a>
</div><div><br></div><div>Speriamo sia di vostro interesse, un saluto</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">--</span><br clear="all" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><p style="margin-bottom:0.5cm"><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>IOCOSE<br>A Crowded Apocalypse<br>
</b></font></font><font color="#000000">(2012)</font><br><br><font color="#000000">Link (pictures and information):</font><br><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.iocose.org/works/a_crowded_apocalypse" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">http://www.iocose.org/works/a_crowded_apocalypse</font></a></u></span></font><br>
<br><br><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>STATEMENT</b></font></font><br><br><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><i>In the Atlantean period there were many energies being used and information and knowledge being used which were, for particular reasons of safety, withdrawn, shall we say, to prevent complete catastrophe, to prevent total destruction of your planet </i></font></font><br>
<font color="#000000">-
David Icke, conspiracy theorist</font><br><br><font color="#000000">Conspiracy theories are, by their definition, neither ultimately refutable or acceptable. In order to hold true, they rely on the acceptance that the full evidence is not reachable. They are based on a shared belief: the idea that each one of us is an unaware piece in a mysterious master plan.</font><br>
<br><font color="#000000">Crowdsourcing, instead, makes this more transparent. Each user contributes to the creation of something which is bigger than the sum of each singular production. The final plan remains unknown, but it is actively produced by a large crowd.</font><br>
<br><font color="#000000">IOCOSE has been drawing on crowdsourcing to hijack the collective imagination. From January until June 2012, the "crowd" has been assembling its own conspiracies and protested against their protagonists and effects.</font><br>
<br><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://acrowdedapocalypse.com/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">http://acrowdedapocalypse.com</font></a></u></span></font><br>
<br><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>PRESS RELEASE</b></font></font><br><br><font color="#000000">From January until June 2012 artist group IOCOSE has been drawing on crowdsourcing to generate a multitude of conspiracy theories. The group has commissioned a series of micro tasks, each of them being almost completely meaningless. However, when put together, the tasks collectively contributed to generate a series of potential paranoias. In the final stage, IOCOSE has paid the 'crowd' to go in the streets and 'protest' against the stories generated through crowdsourcing. The outcome is a collection of pictures of online workers, from all over the world, who received money to simulate a global conspiracy.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font color="#000000">The website </font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://acrowdedapocalypse.com/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">http://acrowdedapocalypse.com</font></a></u></span></font><font color="#000000"> displays the process through which the group IOCOSE has completed the project. In an initial stage, the group asked the crowd to draw a symbol. Then commissioned a list of potential dangerous corporations, governments or fictitious entities. The next stage required the crowd to combine these names with the symbol and generate evidences of a secret plan, which linked these names together. Then the crowd was asked to articulate further and narrate these potential conspiracies, while in the final stage they were asked to write a slogan, go in the streets and take a picture of themselves, with their face covered. In each stage, the workers were not aware of where that task was coming from, and where it was headed.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.5cm"><font color="#000000"><br>Sony, the government of Pakistan, American Apparel and Pizza Hut, among other real or fictitious entities, have been involved in this global protest. An uncountable number of potential reasons of concern and mysterious secret plans have been generated through crowdsourcing, each piece costing less than a few US Dollars.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.5cm"><font color="#000000">IOCOSE has investigated the relation between crowdsourcing and conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are, by their definition, neither ultimately refutable or acceptable. In order to hold true, they rely on the acceptance that the full evidence is not reachable. They are based on a shared belief: the idea that each one of us is an unaware piece in a mysterious master plan. Crowdsourcing, instead, makes this more transparent. Each user contributes to the creation of something which is bigger than the sum of each singular production. The final plan remains unknown, but it is actively produced by a large crowd.<br>
<br><br></font><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>CONTACT</b></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://acrowdedapocalypse.com/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">http://acrowdedapocalypse.com</font></a></u></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.5cm"><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.iocose.org/works/a_crowded_apocalypse" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">http://www.iocose.org/works/a_crowded_apocalypse</font></a></u></span></font><font color="#000000"><br>
</font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="mailto:contact@iocose.org" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">contact@iocose.org</font></a></u></span></font><font color="#000000"><br>
<br><br></font><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>CREDITS</b></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>A Crowded Apocalypse</b></font></font><font color="#000000"> is commissioned by </font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fandfestival.org.uk%2Fevent%2Fonline-crowded-apocalypse-0&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGabhuM8qzQBscvouD4stbIF-iXtQ" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">AND Festival</font></a></u></span></font><font color="#000000"> and </font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.furtherfield.org%2Fprogrammes%2Fexhibition%2Finvisible-forces&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEpPfAPHal23OHP-qIpq-GFzrRQ6g" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Furtherfield</font></a></u></span></font><font color="#000000">.<br>
<br></font><br></p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font color="#000000"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>ARTIST BIO</b></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">Artist group </font></font><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://iocose.org/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">IOCOSE</font></a></u></span></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"> has been working since 2006. Their mission is to subvert ideologies, processes and practices of identification and production of meanings. IOCOSE work with camouflage, mimicry, fakes and pranks, mostly based in news, social and mass media. Among their works, IOCOSE have hijacked an exhibition at Tate Modern, invented a spam campaign for the Italian Democratic Party, designed a religious hi-tech product based on electric shock, crafted an IKEA guillottine, experimented a drug made out of floppy discs, and organized an international contest for the most valueless video on YouTube. IOCOSE have exhibited, among many, at the Venice Biennale (2011), Tate Modern (London, UK, 2011), Jeu de Paume (Paris, France, 2011), FACT (Liverpool, 2011), Aksioma (Slovenia, 2008, 2009), Shift festival (Switzerland, 2010), The Influencers (Spain, 2010).</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom:0cm"><font color="#000000"><br>--<br>IOCOSE<br><a href="http://iocose.org/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">http://iocose.org</a></font></p></div>
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