Project researcher Marielle Wijermars will be presenting her research on data activism at the ECREA conference “Digital Democracy: Critical Perspectives in the Age of Big Data” (Södertörn University, 10-11 November).
Paper: The Complexities of Open Government Adoption in Hybrid Regimes: Aleksei Navalny and Data Activism in Russia
The Russian Media Lab will be at ASEEES from 9-12 November in Chicago. The latest version of the programme can be consulted on the Conference website.
Saara Ratilainen – Round table “New Forms in Digital Storytelling”
New Forms in Digital Storytelling explores the latest tendencies in computer-mediated storytelling that include cross-platform projects, narrative VR, multi-POV, collaborative platforms, and various forms of immersive/ interactive storytelling. Among the topics discussed are mechanisms of creating a version of Belarusian “non-Soviet” history on the internet, the use of digital communication technologies in travelers’ online community, the emergence of native Russian VR projects, as well as new tendencies in digital collaborative filmmaking.
Freek van der Vet – “‘When They Come for You’: Legal Mobilization as the Last Defense in Russia’s Surveillance State”
This paper is part of the panel “Coping with Repressive Laws: Russian NGOs’ Response to the Law on Foreign Agents”
Drawing from interviews and reports, this paper examines how Russian lawyers mobilize the law when authorities use laws and surveillance as tools of repression. How do lawyers litigate at domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of victims of a political backlash: Russians accused of high treason, NGOs prosecuted under the “foreign agent law”, and victims of telephone tapping? The paper finds that lawyers help organizations to evade the effects of the foreign agent law, reveal information to the media about secret treason trials, and advise NGOs on when to engage into litigation.
The Russian Media Lab is well-represented at this year’s Aleksanteri Conference. The project is hosting two panels and one round table, featuring presentations by our researchers, network partners and invited guests. Further details on our panels can be found below. Please consult the Conference website for the latest version of the programme. We look forward to seeing you there!
Andrei Richter (Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media): Post-Soviet Perspective on Evaluating Censorship and Freedom of the Media
Marina Galkina (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia): The Forecast of Changes in State Regulation of Russian Media from the Point of View of National Media Companies
Liudmila Sivetc (University of Turku, Finland): Indirect and Direct Control in Russian Internet Governance
Katja Lehtisaari (Aleksanteri Institute and Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland): “Yarovaya Law” and Discussion on Information Safety
Discussant: Hannu Nieminen (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Chair: Cai Weaver (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Saara Ratilainen (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): The Networked Architecture of Freedom of Speech: Collaboration between New Generation Urban Journals and Cultural Industries in Russia
Mariëlle Wijermars (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland): Aleksei Naval’ny’s “On vam ne Dimon”-Campaign and Data Activism in Russia
Dilyara Suleymanova (University of Zurich, Switzerland): Tatar Creative Industries and Articulations of Ethnic Identity in Tatarstan, Russia
Discussant: Galina Miazhevich (University of Leicester, UK)
Chair: Katja Lehtisaari (Aleksanteri Institute and Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland)
Mariëlle Wijermars (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)
Andrei Richter (Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media)
Liudmila Sivetc (University of Turku, Finland)
Carolina Vendil Pallin (Swedish Defence Research Agency, Sweden)
Freek van der Vet (Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki)
The Russian Media Lab has initiated a collaboration with the international art project “States of Control” curated by the St. Petersburg-based Creative Association of Curators (TOK). Upon invitation by TOK’s Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits, project researcher Saara Ratilainen took part in the performative talk show “I’ve Got the Power!” on 19 August 2017.
States of Control took over Finland in August with a series of exhibits and performances at the Alkovi and Augusta galleries in Helsinki. The events were organized in collaboration with the Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) “Connecting points” curated and coordinated by Finnish artists Miina Hujala and Arttu Merimaa. One of the central aims of the project is to advance the role of art in understanding the most difficult political questions of our times: occupation, border control, immigration and propaganda. The topics discussed through art projects curated by TOK overlap with the central research interests of the Russian Media Lab, namely emerging spaces of freedom of expression in different areas of cultural production.
The idea for the project emerged from the realization that, as Bitkina and Veits put it,
“political turbulence and conflicts of the last few years have launched numerous propaganda campaigns and battles in the press. The war in Syria, the annexation of Crimea, emerging opposition between Russia, Europe and the US, Brexit, forced migration, increase of terrorism in Europe and other issues have been circulating in the media and often used as elements of massive political games and power relations.”
At the opening ceremony of ‘States of Control,’ Augusta Gallery, August 2017. From left to right: Juha Huuskonen (Director HIAP), Arttu Merimaa, Miina Hujala, Mara Veits (TOK), Anna Bitkina (TOK). Photo: Sergio Urbina
Bitkina and Veits continue,
“Today, ‘alternative facts’, propaganda, fake news, and carefully designed media narratives have more control over our lives than ever. We have become utterly dependent on our electronic newsfeeds, which we allow to shape our worldviews and opinions.”
To tackle the role of contemporary media in producing polarized exchanges of opinions, political confrontations and propaganda, Bitkina and Veits organized the performative talk show “I’ve Got the Power!” The talk show’s host Denis Maksimov structured the discussion around the questions “What is truth? Who constitutes the rules of reality?” He explains the importance of these straightforward but thought-provoking questions as follows:
“The contemporary thickly media-saturated world is a neoliberal marketplace of subjective realities, where the diversity of ‘offering’ on the ‘shelves’ is dictated by the multiplication of the power centers. The history did not end, as Francis Fukuyama assumed it would, with the collapse of one superpower and ultimate, final rise of the singular winner. (…) The tool of defining reality hadn’t changed: propaganda covered the walls of Ashurbanipal palace thousands of years ago and now it covers private ‘walls’ of Facebook. Have we got the power to critically evaluate, deconstruct and reveal its hidden agendas, power narratives and enslaving desires?”
One of the exhibition spaces of the beautiful Augusta Gallery on Suomenlinna island. Photo: Shir Comay
Display of Mikhail Tolmachev’s video installation ‘What Has Been Seen (Cannot Be Unseen)’ on the conflict in Ukraine at the ‘States of Control’ exhibition in the Augusta Gallery. Photo: Sergio Urbina
One of the discussion panels on the performative talkshow ‘I’ve Got the Power!’. From left to right: curator Miina Hujala, artist Alevtina Kakhidze, researcher Maksim Alyukov. Photo: Saara Ratilainen
Russian Media Lab researcher Saara Ratilainen takes part in the Q&A session during the performative talkshow ‘I’ve Got the Power’. Photo: Timo Tuominen
Artwork by Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger ‘East-West Exhibition Battle’ at the ‘States of Control’ exhibition in the Augusta Gallery. The artwork, commissioned by TOK for the exhibit, consists of 13 wooden boxes with a timeline describing artistic collaborations between East and West. Photo: Timo Tuominen
“States of Control” is a continuation of TOK’s ongoing research into changing media strategies that the curators started in 2014. Their first research results were presented at the exhibition “Propaganda News Machine: Constructing Multiple Realities in The Media” at Flux Gallery in New York City in 2016. TOK continues the project by carrying out research and engaging more artists and other professionals into its activities, beyond Finland and the U.S.
Veits and Bitkina are committed to combining artistic practice with academic research:
“We find it very important to contribute to generating theoretical knowledge on international socially engaged art practices and introduce local contexts and Russian-based artistic and curatorial methods to the international art community. Elaborating shared concepts and terminology dealing with social practices that could be used by various professionals across disciplines as well as collecting and generating knowledge about engagement of art professionals and community members into sociopolitical processes is one of the conference’s main goal.”
Quotes from http://tok-spb.org/new/en/states-of-control
Edited by Saara Ratilainen
Some two weeks remain to submit your abstract for the special issue ‘Women and Tech in Post-Soviet Contexts: Intelligence, Creativity, Transgression.’
For this special issue of Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media we invite contributions on themes, including:
To read the full cfp, please click here.
Please send an abstract of 350 words and a short cv to the issue’s editors Saara Ratilainen (saara.ratilainen@helsinki.fi), Mariëlle Wijermars (marielle.wijermars@helsinki.fi) and Justin Wilmes (wilmesj15@ecu.edu) by 15 October 2017. Notification on acceptance will be sent by November 20. The deadline for full articles is 31 January 2018.
24 October 2017 – 14:00-17:30 hours
@University of Helsinki, Aleksanteri Institute, 2nd floor (Unioninkatu 33)
The Russian Media Lab is hosting an afternoon seminar on freedom of speech and critical journalism in Russia to precede the Aleksanteri Conference (25-27 October). At this pre-conference event, Russian Media Lab researchers and members of our international research network will present their (ongoing) research. The second part of the seminar is dedicated to discussing joint publication plans and exploring areas for future collaboration. If you would like to join in our discussions, you are kindly requested to register your attendance before 21 October.
For more information, contact Mariëlle Wijermars
Programme
14:00 – 14:05 Word of welcome by Markku Kangaspuro
14:05 – 14:45 Panel 1: Russian Media Lab – ongoing research
Katja Lehtisaari (University of Helsinki): Public Discussion on Media Policy in Russia
Saara Ratilainen (University of Helsinki): In the Land of Hidden Truths and Self-Censorship: Moscow Cultural Industries Commemorating the 1917 Revolution (or Not)
Freek van der Vet (University of Helsinki): When They Come for You: Protecting the Freedom of Information in Russia’s Surveillance State
Mariëlle Wijermars (University of Helsinki): Control the News Feed, Control the News? The Impact of Russia’s News Aggregator Regulation on the Online News Landscape
14:45 – 15:30 Panel 2: Paper presentations
Svetlana Bodrunova (St. Petersburg State University): Mediatization and Politicization of Twitter Ad Hoc Discussions: Russia in Comparative Perspective
Mikhail Tyurkin (St. Petersburg State University): Russian ‘Patriotic’ Online Media and Blogs and Their Impact on the Current Political Agenda
15:30 – 15:45 Coffee break
15:45 – 16:15 Panel 3: Joint publication plans
Freedom of Speech and Critical Journalism in the Russian Media Sphere. Edited volume, eds. Mariëlle Wijermars & Katja Lehtisaari
“Beyond Repression and Resistance: Reconceptualising New Media and Creative Industries in Post-Socialist Contexts”. Special issue, eds. Saara Ratilainen & Mariëlle Wijermars
“Russia’s Changing Media Landscape.” Special issue Russian Journal of Communication, eds. Katja Lehtisaari & Galina Miazhevich
16:15 – 17:30 Plenary discussion moderated by Markku Kangaspuro
E.g., opportunities for future collaboration
Call for Papers: Special issue on ‘Women and Tech in the Post-Soviet Context: Intelligence, Creativity, Transgression’, Studies in Russian, Eurasian, and Central-European New Media (www.digitalicons.org)
The development of the internet as a democratizing tool fostering freedom of information, grass-roots activism, and peer-to-peer support is closely related to and engrained in hacker communities. In the early days of the internet’s development, these groups consisted primarily of young white men from with access to higher education and technology. In popular culture, the image of the successful programmer, software developer and ‘hacktivist’ remains predominantly male and is based on such well-known examples as Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Edward Snowden, and Pavel Durov. Meanwhile, there are few if any stories or representations of women who have led the hacker revolution. As access to computer-programming-based technology becomes democratized on the user-end, gender (and other) inequalities on the developer side continue to persist with women drastically underrepresented in tech professions.
These representations contradict what we know from history, including the fact that there are several women who have led crucial advancements in math and computing. Ada Lovelace, Victorian mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, was notably the inventor of algorithms. She introduced the ‘calculating machine’ one hundred years before the existence of modern computers. Another pioneering female computer scientist and feminist figure, Joan Clarke, worked as a cryptanalyst in the British Government’s Code and Cypher School with the task of decrypting the German Enigma machine code during World War II. Clarke’s work was brought to the attention of international film audiences by The Imitation Game in 2014 and biographies of Lovelace are being published in different languages. Despite some renewed interest, we still know far too little about women’s work in computing, internet activism, and technology industries in general.
Studies in Russian, Eurasian, and Central-European New Media (www.digitalicons.org) invites submissions that address women, feminism, and the internet in post-socialist contexts to be published in a special issue ‘Women and Tech in the post-Soviet Context: Intelligence, Creativity, Transgression’. The issue aims to consider what is it like to be a female programmer, online activist, or digital artist in the era of global connectedness through the internet. According to a study conducted by HackerRank (blog.hackerrank.com), of the ten nations with the best women coders three are Eastern European/post-socialist countries, which prompts the question whether female programmers are better off in post-socialist countries than they are in Silicon Valley? Against this background, the issue also seeks to examine feminist activism and women’s creative work online. Did Pussy Riot pave the way for transnational feminism to grow through online communications? What is the role of internet-based ‘cyber feminism’ (feminist theorizing, critiquing and exploiting the internet and new media technologies) for the grass-roots work of women’s groups across the post-socialist space and beyond? How do women artists, writers, and poets advance their careers through online networks and computer programming?
The proposed articles can include (but are not limited to) themes such as:
Please send an abstract of 350 words and a short cv to the issue’s editors Saara Ratilainen (saara.ratilainen@helsinki.fi), Mariëlle Wijermars (marielle.wijermars@helsinki.fi) and Justin Wilmes (wilmesj15@ecu.edu) by 15 October 2017. Notification on acceptance will be sent by November 20. The deadline for full articles is 31 January 2018.
Ellen Rutten is Professor of Literature, with a focus on Slavonic literature and culture, at the University of Amsterdam. Her latest book, Sincerity after Communism: A Cultural History, was published by Yale University Press earlier this year.
Photo by Jeroen Oerlemans
Could you tell a bit about your work relating to Russia and media?
In my new research project Sublime Imperfections, I examine discussions in which the imperfect or the non-polished is framed as something positive — as a guarantee for authenticity or humanness in a digitized age, for instance. Together with two PhD students, I examine how the logic and aesthetics of imperfection function across different world regions. We look at and compare discussions about such diverse objects and spaces as torn jeans, glitch music, repurposed post-industrial sites, and purportedly blurry photographs or films in art, cinema, and advertizing.
With my background as Russianist, and as someone born and raised in the Netherlands, I pay special attention to the positive feelings that are projected onto the non-polished and non-perfected in the Netherlands and in Russia, in print, online, and social media. In (both Russophone and Anglophone) public discourse about Russia, for instance, you see that speakers frame the country as a place that owes its beauty and authenticity to being imperfect, flawed, or chaotic. In our project, we monitor this type of discourse – and we also critically interrogate this stereotype: after all, the habit of reducing Russia to a faulty-but-wonderful space is often a downright orientalist, damaging habit.
How do you see the current state of freedom of speech in Russia?
Of course, in Putinist Russia, after a period of complete freedom just after the downfall of the Soviet Union, we once again witness serious local problems with freedom of speech. I always make sure that I explain to my students that this does not mean that we are ‘returning to the Soviet Union,’ as some journalists argue. The take of the current authorities on freedom of speech differs fundamentally from that of the Soviet era – when the authorities wanted citizens to comply with state views in public, but also in private spaces (and not just in their kitchens, but in their ‘hearts and minds,’ too). The situation is quite different today. Putin and the Putinist elite do not care that a small group of intellectuals criticizes and mocks them in private: they just do not tolerate mockery and critique via mainstream or lushly visited media. That difference with the Soviet situation is often overlooked in western media, but you need to acknowledge it if you want to understand how media work in present-day Russia.
By pointing to the difference between Putin-era and Soviet-era censorship, I am not trying to say that the current media modelling is no reason for grave concern, by the way. It is – and I agree with scholars who frame the Putinist approach to media as semi-authoritarian. The past year or two, I even find myself wondering sometimes whether ‘semi-‘ is still an appropriate prefix for the contemporary Russian media model.
Can we also observe positive or exciting developments? Could you mention concrete examples?
What interests and inspires me, is the smart ways in which many higher-educated young Russians in journalism and the arts operate within the current mediascape. Both online and in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, in the past years I witnessed multiple new initiatives which, without being anti-Kremlin or overtly politically motivated, clearly boast a subtle and critical tone and take on life in Russia. These initiatives are not activist enough to clash with the authorities, but progressive and professional enough to offer helpful alternatives to mainstream work and entertainment domains. Existing and new (online) publication platforms like the New Literary Observer, Colta, and InRussia are good examples. I am also thinking of the exciting academic and public events hosted by my colleagues at Smolny College and the Higher School of Economics — and I spotted the same Kremlin-ignoring-and-progressive/energetic working mode at a lecture series by art and culture professionals at Moscow’s Museum Night this year.
How do you see the future of media freedom and freedom of speech in Russia?
Hard to say without a crystal ball. In any case the types of initiatives that I just mentioned will, I think, play a vital role in that future.