Data Bodies and Tech Activism
A series of interviews of Artists and Speakers featured at the [CODAME](/orgs/codame) [ART+TECH Festival [2018]](/orgs/codame/events/art-tech-festival-2018) by [Irene Malatesta](/artists/irene-malatesta) Laila Shereen Sakr, also known as [VJ Um Amel](/artists/vj-um-amel). Photo credit: Derek Conrad Murray Professor Laila Shereen Sakr, also known as VJ Um Amel, is fascinated with culture. In conversation, she returns often to the subject of how ideas bubble up from the underground and coalesce, how individuals come together to create community online, and how to preserve and document that process. In her larger project, Storyboard of the Arab Resistance , she engages with these themes with a particular focus on the Arab world. Three pieces from Part I, [Glitch Resistance on Metal](/orgs/codame/projects/glitch-resistance-on-metal) , will be on view at the 2018 CODAME [ART+TECH Festival](/orgs/codame/events/codame-art-tech-festival-2013) : Data Body of a Cyborg , Cairo Graffiti , and Hashtag Activism , along with a related interactive artwork, [Touch Data Body X](/orgs/codame/projects/touch-data-body-x) . Glitch Resistance on Metal is a limited edition series of six framed prints on metal, debuting at CODAME and soon to be on tour in North America. Sakr describes one piece, Data Body of a Cyborg , as “a consideration of form, content, composition, materiality, virtuality, and data.” In a recent conversation, I asked Sakr what she means when she refers to “a data body.” Her answer is central to understanding not only this piece, but many facets of her work. “One person who has influenced me big time is Ricardo Dominguez,” says Sakr, by way of introducing the concept. “Especially his work [as co-founder of] the Electronic Disturbance Theater and his early publication in Cultural Resistance Reader . In 2016 I went to a lecture of his, and he talked about a data body while describing what he calls micro gestures as interventions.” A “micro gesture” in this context describes an action that reveals something, such as a logical or philosophical weakness, in the surrounding system, thus destabilizing it. She relates a story he told her about such an action, which formed the genesis of her later work on the subject of data bodies. The micro gesture that made such a significant impression on her was performed by a male to female transgender person who had just had top surgery. Sakr recalls, “The local law at that time in Tallahassee, Florida was that men were allowed to be topless but women were not. Ricardo said to his friend, I have a challenge for you. You take off your top, show off your brand new breasts and drive around town. If you get pulled over by the police, let’s see if you will go to jail or not.”