History is Possible

installation, print on plexiglass, aluminum rod, 500x41cm, 2018
made for exhibition Who was 1968?, Nordico Stadtmuseum, Linz (curators: Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schoellhammer)

Which algorithms help to co-determine human society? What complexity of input and interaction? In his famous video-essay, Harun Farocki came to the conclusion that history is possible, and that it keeps reappearing as a Moebius strip. His observation has to do with film and its ability to make events of the past present for others. The portrayed past speaks of the present and of its future. If seeds of change are sewn in the past, they may germinate during their second appearance, the will to bring about change providing the necessary nutrients. Our actions are determined by algorithms innate to human action. Their various interactions have unexpected impacts. They manifest themselves in waves and, in newly forged interactions, they clamor for their implementation. The projection of the past becomes bifurcated. History is possible.

Script:

Alexander Dubček shakes hands with Leonid Brezhnev.

Parliamentary elections are held in Czechoslovakia.

In England, miners discuss conditions of closing the last coal mine in Black Country.

One of the sides in the Vietnam-America conflict announces their victory in the Battle of Khe Sahn.

The US stopped bombing Vietnam with their surplus.

Capital decoupled itself from gold. Gold remained capital.

Moore’s Law collapses Murphy’s Law. Everything gets better and better.

A massive redistribution of wealth began.

Socialism is exposed for being state capitalism.

The socialist government consolidates and creates the first cybernetic state, a universal example, the true third way, a miracle.

Cybernetics include the study of feedback, black boxes and derived concepts such as communication and control in living organisms, machines and organizations, including self-organization.

‘There is no alternative’ becomes a slogan in the political fight.

Another coup d’état supported by the United States Central Intelligence Agency

Only alternatives catch on, the death drive searches for new paths of fulfillment.

The end and new beginning.

The search for a fitting label for the new social regime is on.

Gustáv Husák speaks about a brighter future for all.