Cristina Ricupero | Don’t Believe A Word I Say

Following Cristina Ricupero’s special interest in the mechanisms of contemporary secrecy, she will focus this two-part program on espionage, a topic she is developing for an exhibition project with Alexandra Midal (independent curator and professor at the design program at HEAD-Haute Ecole d’Art et Design, Geneva).

With examples from contemporary art and design, sociology, philosophy, the spy novel, film and pop culture, Ricupero will show how espionage has evolved throughout time and played a major role in the political sphere of every country. If in the past national governments spied on individuals, today with Wikileaks this trend seems to have been reversed as private individuals are in the capacity of revealing hidden governmental secrets. The world of espionage seems thus to be a gold mine for artists to dig into.

Respondents:

John Tirman, Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist, MIT Center for International Studies

Ilaria Liccardi, Research Scientist, Internet Policy Research Initiative, MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)