our contemporary moment, which drive clicks and A text in the film proclaims: “nothing can be hidden web page hits. Propaganda swims among these swells forever.” Propaganda operates in this great wide-open Vertical of persuasive emotion: the Prosecutor General of the space, a major theme of the project. However, the inter- Republic of Crimea Natalia Poklonskaya’s transfor- net’s promise of total transparency is greatly beholden to mation into a catchy meme following the Russian geopolitical realities and never distributed equally, a fact Horizons annexation of Crimea, and the upload of disturbing that Metahaven’s research and work on “black transpar- Ceci Moss combat videos by activists in Bahrain, are both cited ency” reminds us of. In their recent book with Sternberg in the film. Tolstoy understood art as a direct line to Press, Black Transparency: The Right to Know in the Age of Metahaven describe their new film The Sprawl as universal emotion, a pathway to the truth of shared Mass Surveillance, as well as past exhibitions at Future “propaganda about propaganda”–a mutable work human experience. By inserting this text into their nar- Gallery in Berlin and Bureau Europa in Maastricht, that examines the effect of new networked communi- rative, Metahaven question the status of this perspec- the Netherlands, the designers argue that information cation technologies on the state’s public persuasion tive today given the wildly accelerated spectrum of released by whistleblowers and hackers such as Edward and diplomacy. The project is a continuation of their emotion fueled by the internet’s immense output. Snowden, WikiLeaks, and Anonymous lays bare the ongoing research addressing the negotiations and continued secrecy of governments despite pronounce- pitfalls of modern democracy given the rise of mass The work’s title, The Sprawl, makes a deliberate ments of openness and transparency. Metahaven term surveillance, big data, and cloud-based computing. association to land; one thinks of rampant, careless this phenomenon “black transparency” and approach its Speculative in nature, their larger body of work occu- real estate growth, scattered suburbs with strip malls tactics and consequences through design. “Nothing can pies a recognizable present and a near future, where and tract homes. The verb form conjures haphazard be hidden forever” is both a declaration and a warning. traditional understandings of the nation state become proliferation or movement. Perhaps sprawl can be read complicated by the multiple identities, allegiances, as a type of diagram in the Foucauldian sense, as a The Sprawl signals not only the mutation of state influ- and lines of communication ushered in by new structuring mechanism or map of relations between ence in the age of social media and an unprecedented technologies. Facestate (2010–12), for instance, imag- forces that prescribe social relations. Designed as a volume of images, but also alerts us to the status of sov- ines a time in which social networks like Facebook full-length feature and as something to be spliced into ereignty and citizenship under a new paradigm. If, fol- have truly become systems of surveillance governing short clips that can be uploaded and distributed via lowing Bratton, we are witnessing the assertive results of a borderless global society. Metahaven developed different platforms, traveling on the very networks it planetary-scale computation, its intricate inner workings a brand and advertising campaign for this fictional describes, the project opens itself up to variations that remain difficult to represent. Metahaven operate within society, which is eerily familiar given the widespread are indeed sprawling in nature. this haze, following it, tracing circuitry in the shadows. tracking already enabled by social media platforms. Metahaven The Sprawl exists in a similar temporal space that is Further, the work’s intentionally diffuse format Ceci Moss is Assistant Curator of Visual Arts at (2787). 415.978.ARTS Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. the Arts Buena Center for the nation’s most is one of (YBCA) Yerba mission is contemporary YBCA’s artsinnovative in 1993, centers. Founded art experiences, powerful people. Through generatethat moves culture to content, and deep opportunities participation, and provocative for thoughtful personal that awakens culture an inclusive creating is committed to YBCA and societal transformation. including programming year-round, of presents a wide variety YBCA performing arts, visual arts, film/video and civic engagement. venues YBCA Buena Center Room, Galleries and the Yerba Screening include the Forum, tickets and information, the Artsfor For Theater. Call the Arts Buena Center for Yerba Mission Street 701 94103 CA San Francisco, 415–978–ARTS ybca.org possible, in part, made are by Exhibitions 2015–2016 YBCA King, and Kevin Moore Wilkins and Sheila Duignan, Meridee Mike Council. Ventures and the Creative possible, in part, made are by Programs 2015–2016 YBCA The James Irvine Foundation. Programs 2015–2016 YBCA for Additional Funding and the Arts, Grosvenor, for National Endowment Adobe, Gaia Fund, the Arts. Buena Center for First Tuesdays Free members Yerba of the Arts for Buena Center Yerba Members. Directors Forum underwritten by its for San Francisco ongoing support. the City of to is grateful Design by both immediate and prognostic. While it focuses on demonstrates the multiplicity described by the mediated representations of current events such as theorist Benjamin H. Bratton at the film’s beginning, the Ebola outbreak, the conflict between the Ukraine where he notes, “The development of planetary-scale and Russia, and the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), the computation, this accidental mega-structure that I film’s heavily stylized interludes cut through, gesturing call the Stack, has both deformed and distorted this toward an anonymous subject on the other side of traditional Westphalian model.” Instead of a national The Space. the screen. Hovering in a ghostly parallel reality, the map with distinct borderlines focused narrowly on and figures in these clips wield swords or stand transfixed adjacencies, which Bratton traces back to the 1648 Lighthouse by screens. Treaty of Westphalia, he argues that the introduction is co-produced of the Stack over the past twenty-five years due to the Sian Habell-Aili, ’t Zelfde, Juha van Aided by their emotional punch, these mesmerizing emergence of a massive technological infrastructure The Sprawl snippets are constructed to go viral. Excerpts from has ushered in a verticality in which a person, event, Leo Tolstoy’s What Is Art? are read aloud by a narrator site, or network possesses multiple layers of political and commissioned by during a segment, and in an interview with the literary sovereignty simultaneously. In the present moment, and Filmfund a collaboration the Dutch Mediafund, of historian Monalisa Gharavi, she reflects on this 1897 the traditional Westphalian model and the Stack Lighthouse Transmedia NL. fund Industries Creative Metahaven would like to thank to like would Metahaven the Arts, for Buena Center Lucy Chinen, Yerba Lighthouse, Ceci Moss, der Velden van and Vesper Fuller Paul Park, Joowon Herregraven, Femke image project The moving December 18, 2015–April 3, 2016 by possible with the support Made of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts book. In it, Tolstoy argues that the activity of art joins coexist, clash, intersect, and mutate, impacting the humanity in shared emotion; the primary aim of the conceptualization of both nation and citizen. This expressive act is to provoke feelings that create and tension is an undercurrent throughout The Sprawl, strengthen those bonds. The reference to this text in and its fractured movement is mirrored in the film’s the film underscores the ebbs and flows of affect in fluctuating format. Camera Rentals, , 1953 Charlie McGough, Bas Schram, Aga Urbanowicz Elisa Grasso Aleida Strowger Fiona Fletcher , 1935–1940 Anna Spierings, Lucy Chinen Ferry de Pater, Tim van Peppen Tim van Ferry de Pater, Remko Schnorr Remko Metahaven Aon Risk Solutions Aon Sian Habell-Aili Metahaven (Vinca Kruk, Daniel van der Velden) (Vinca Kruk, Daniel van Metahaven , 1897 Anastasia Kubrak, Ekaterina Kholyapina Selim Helmi, Remke Kruk Selim Helmi, Remke Daniel Goddard Lucy Chinen Lighthouse, The Space Requiem Miriam Randall Truth and Revelation Truth Kees de Klein Jamie Kuedo Emily Kyriakides Juha van ’t Zelfde Juha van Composed by Kuedo Composed by Georgina David, Xuanhong Huang, Astrit Ismaili, Xuanhong Georgina David, Lighthouse, Metahaven What is Art? Benedikt “Mad Max” Wöppel Max” Benedikt “Mad Masha Pruss, Henrietta Meire Masha Metahaven Benjamin H. Bratton, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Benjamin H. Bratton, Maryam Monalisa Fono (Tobias Corba), Metahaven (Tobias Fono 2 3 Metahaven Schnorr, Remko Solveig Suess, Yee Jin Sha, Raf Rennie, Chloe Scheffe, Suess, Yee Solveig Schram Studios, NL Studios Gwen Pol, Georgina David, Annabel Reid Georgina David, Pol, Gwen Jonas Lund Screen gazersScreen Pippa Xu Xiaoyao Kees Stankovic, de Klein, Annabel Reid, Sofija Lighthouse Senior Producer Interviews Pomerantsev Peter Written and directed by and directed Written by Produced Commissioned by Cast Producer Development Artistic Director Director Executive Communications Manager Photography of Director Additional Photography Sound Mixer Production by Edited Editing Consultant Original Music Sound Designer Camera & Lighting Assistant (NL) Manager Production (UK) Manager Production