Deep Lab

██████╗ ███████╗███████╗██████╗     ██╗      █████╗ ██████╗
██╔══██╗██╔════╝██╔════╝██╔══██╗    ██║     ██╔══██╗██╔══██╗
██║  ██║█████╗  █████╗  ██████╔╝    ██║     ███████║██████╔╝
██║  ██║██╔══╝  ██╔══╝  ██╔═══╝     ██║     ██╔══██║██╔══██╗
██████  ███████ ███████ ██          ███████ ██   ██║██████

Founding Members (A-Z):
  Addie Wagenknecht, Artist and Director Deep Lab
  Allison Burtch, Researcher, Artist and Activist
  Claire Evans, Futures Editor of Motherboard, Vice Magazine
  Denise Caruso, Journalist, Senior Research Scholar, CMU EPP
  Harlo Holmes, Director of Metadata for the Guardian
  Ingrid Burrington, Researcher and Artist
  Kate Crawford, Principal Researcher Microsoft Research, Visiting Professor MIT
  Jen Lowe, Data Scientist, Researcher and Writer
  Jillian York, Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
  Joana Varon, Researcher on Internet Governance & Digital Rights
  Lindsay Howard, Independent Curator
  Madeleine Varner, Artist/Developer
  Maral Pourkazemi, Data/Information Visualizer
  Runa Sandvik, Privacy/Security Researcher, Tor Project


Hacking technology is a right, not a weapon.  Because the deep web is largely void of a female presence—save for sexualized images—female hackers must engage with the future, in order to make our presence in history indelible. And so Deep Lab was born.

What
Deep Lab is a collaborative group of researchers, artists, writers, engineers, and cultural producers interested in privacy, surveillance, code, art, social hacking, and anonymity. Members of Deep Lab are engaged in ongoing critical assessments of contemporary digital culture and exploit the hidden potential for creative inquiry lying dormant within the deep web. Deep Lab supports its members' ability to output anonymously via proxy tools; in this way, our research can remain fluid via multi-pseodonymous identity. Deep Lab promotes creative research and development that challenges traditional forms of representation and distribution, evaluating these practices alongside typical traffic analysis identification. This process leverages the research of Deep Lab to contend with outdated modes of understanding culture within traditional social structures.
Deep Lab develops key participatory roles in the future. We utilize the Lab’s extensive knowledge of technology and creativity as a mode of analysis and output. As a group, we work to manifest actions better than any corporation or government. We write our own histories, and make history, by continuing in the tradition of female hackers and activists like Cornelia Solfrank, Netochka Nezvanova, and projects like Anna Adamolo.
Deep Lab's ongoing research, residencies, and forthcoming publication are supported by Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and the Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2015, Deep Lab will partner with NEW Inc, the New Museum's art/tech incubator, and MIT Media Lab to offer residencies to group members. Deep Lab will come together at the end of 2015 to produce an exhibition at bitforms and series of public programs curated by Lindsay Howard and Julia Kaganskiy.

Why
The feedback system built into digital networks necessitates the sharing of information. A problem arises, however, when the distribution of this information conflicts with the notion of scarcity—a core ideological component of the value of cultural objects. Since the principles of global capitalism and government determine value based on data, we are left with a fundamental friction in the distribution and creation of culture or research through digital networks. Deep Lab's research will focus on this contradiction by exploring new modes of interaction.
Pushing beyond the boundaries of ego and affiliation, Deep Lab members may choose to protect their identity at any point through anonymity. Doing so allows group members to remain self-reflexive. In order to pursue experimental research and make cultural contributions sustainable, practices of anonymity lend members an authoritative, collective voice unencumbered by individual fear.

Find Us
Twitter      https://twitter.com/deeplab_
Github       https://github.com/DeepLab
Book         http://studioforcreativeinquiry.org/publications/deep-lab-book
Documentary  https://vimeo.com/116314844
Contact      addie at placesiveneverbeen dot com
PGP KEY      0x50F0DF5E2FDBB596

Those who came before
E.A.T. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.A.T.
Cypherpunks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk
F.A.T. Lab http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Art_and_Technology_Lab
CCC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Computer_Club
Radical Software http://www.radicalsoftware.org/