Elif Çiğdem Artan (sociologist, museologist, curator)
Ulrike Bergermann (media theorist)

Serhat Karakayali (sociologist)


in English and German


What are recent examples of practices in which ‘assembling’ and ‘disseminating’ reconfigure agencies, resources, affects and information to give rise to new forms of collectivities?

This roundtable brings together curator Elif Çiğdem Artan, media theorist Ulrike Bergermann and sociologist Serhat Karakayali to ask about the relationships and interdependencies between ‘assembling‘ and ‘disseminating’ as constitutive mechanisms in processes of collectivization. The conversation begins with the presentation of three examples, in which collectivity is (re)configured as it is exercised: Serhat Karakayali analyzes how solidarity among seemingly opposing groups arose during the uprising of 2013 in Istanbul leading to the emergence of a “spirit of Gezi”. Ulrike Bergermann reflects on the production of agency and mediality within the overlapping agendas of artistic production and economic advancement in the project African Terminal, initiated by the collective geheimagentur. Elif Çiğdem Artan investigates the relationships between infrastructure and agency in the work of autonomous archiving of activist videos, looking at Interference Archivein New York and bak.main Istanbul. Together we will discuss, firstly, how ‘assembling’ and ‘disseminating’ take shape in each example, leading to different forms of collectivities. Secondly, what practicable mechanisms, interfaces and infrastructures come into play. Thirdly, how these three instances approach possibilities of collective interaction in terms of ‘sharing’ and ‘learning’.

Elif Çiğdem Artan submitted her doctoral research in humanities at TU Berlin—IGK—Center for Metropolitan Studies. Her dissertation is entitled as The Future of the Present: Autonomous Archiving of ActivistVideos. She is currently curator and coordinator of the Federal German Migrant WomenAssociation’s project Bibliothek der Altenat Historical Museum Frankfurt. She is co-founder of the Museum Professionals Association in Turkey. Her research interestsspan the fields of museology, urban, and digital culture.

Ulrike Bergermann teaches Media Studies at the University of Art in Braunschweig, has a long-standing interest in the (media) history of knowledges and academic disciplines and a research focus on Gender and Postcolonial Studies. Her PhD thesis discussed sign language notation in the political history of a knowledge of the deaf, while the second book asks for the impact of cybernetics in Media Studies. She has been a member of the German Research Foundation board of Media Studies (2010-2017) and has been working at the editorial board of the Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft since 2009, also hosting the Gender Blog of the ZfM. For recent texts see www.ulrikebergermann.de.

Dr. Serhat Karakayali is researcher at the Berlin Institute for Empirical Research on Integration and Migration (BIM), Humboldt University. One of his research interests lies in the study of activism and new forms of political articulation and recomposition. Against this background he conducted research on new forms of protest such as the Gezi Protests in Turkey, and more recently in a series of studies about refugee support groups in Germany and Europe. Recent publication: The social space of Autonomy. Constructing Scopes of Solidarity, Special Issue South Atlantic Quarterly, 2017.