Daniel van der Velden / Metahaven The work of Metahaven consists of filmmaking, writing, and design. Films by Metahaven include Chaos Theory (2021), Hometown (2018), Eurasia (Questions on Happiness) (2018), and Information Skies (2016, nominated for the 2017 European Film Awards). Solo exhibitions include Passphrases, State of Concept Athens (2021), Turnarounds, e-flux, New York (2019), Version History, ICA London (2018), Earth, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2018), Hometown, Izolyatsia, Kyiv (2018), and Islands in the Cloud, MoMA PS1, New York (2013). Public lectures include “An Evening with Metahaven,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019), “After The Sprawl,” Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2019), and “Inhabitant,” Harvard GSD, Cambridge (2020). Recent publications include PSYOP: An Anthology (2018, edited with Karen Archey), and Digital Tarkovsky (2018).
In this round table discussion, we will explore how the human rating system creates a numeric value reflected in number of likes, number of YouTube reproductions, social media metrics and the way that platforms and apps have created a system of hierarchies and strata to measure life’s worth. We will discuss how through this human ratings system the logic of the algorithm intervenes in human subjectivity expanding the project of valuation of human life that has been instrumental to the capitalist administration of life itself.