Doomsday Cartography

In political spaces and imaginaries, a sense of doom can make cooperative acts of refusal and exodus legible as strategies for survival. But this potential of doom is not exclusive to fugitive communities and undercommons – doom is also an inspiration for systems of control that perpetuate its conditions. This is exhibited by speculative scenarios devised by the Pentagon – from its »Counter-Zombie Dominance« plan to its cinematic descriptions of a future of crime and need in »Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity« – which use doom as a backdrop to strategize counterinsurgency operations.

Peter Polack / Los Angeles, CA, US — Dez 15, 2020

For the web residency, I propose a response to these doomsday scenarios that draws out their potential for new beginnings. To do so, I will develop an annotated map that takes place in the world envisioned by speculators of counter-insurgency, which appropriates fragments of their language about »adversaries« and imagery of reclaimed urban infrastructures. Instead of replicating their fear of growing mobs, underground passageways, and complexity, I will highlight the opportunities that specific doomsday scenarios give us for new means of association and perception. Drawing from my experiences with antipolitics and chronic illness, I will subvert the militaristic view of doomsday with the perspective of a persona innovating to navigate it. To ensure accessibility, I will implement an interface that enables cycling through elements of the map, which will each be described in text and audio.

VISIT THE PROJECT

Counter Cartography and Cooperative Acts of Refusal

Peter Polack interviewed by Pedro Oliveira

»Post-Doom« Web Resident Peter Polack talks to former Solitude Web Resident, researcher and sound artist Pedro Oliveira about data-driven policing systems, and how his practice as a researcher and designer interrogates how algorithms brand reality. Subsequently, the two artists discuss Peter’s project »Doomsday Cartography,« in which he uses counter-insurgency scenarios as a starting point to discuss military tools and tactics to protect state interests, and demonstrate how counter-insurgency and technologies of oppression determine what appears as regular and significant.

Read the interview

Peter Polack

Peter Polack is a designer and PhD candidate at the Department of Information Studies at the University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles/USA. His work and research address how technical systems are designed to inform our perception, and the role of art-making in illustrating what technology makes perceptible. This focus is informed by his background in game design and data visualization, and by his work with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a grassroots organization that analyzes the social impacts of police surveillance systems.

Beteiligte Person(en)