Technologies of Hope and Fear  is an artist archive of 100 data-driven, machine learning, and AI-enabled technologies developed, marketed, and implemented to manage the pandemic and ultimately help societies “get back to normal.” 

Whether attached to our bodies, installed in hospitals, schools and train stations, hovering in the air, or scraping information from social media, this project bears witness to the ambient, biometric, mobility, and behavioral surveillance and intelligence revolution that the pandemic has enabled. 

The project creates a snapshot in time at the beginning of the pandemic. It is a curated artist archive of rapid shifts in the uptake of data and intelligence as a response to the crisis. Chosen from over 250 technologies worldwide, the artist archive investigates how data-driven “disaster capitalism” morphs in response to the crisis and the linguistic and aesthetic modes of corporate narratives captured by promotional videos and visual metaphors. It documents transgressions between public and private spheres around the world in the context of the pandemic. 

By exploring the trade-offs between safety and freedom, surveillance and control, the project intentionally deals with questions of scale between the individual and millions of individuals, feedback loops that create individual and collective insights. It charts the rise of the "pandemic pivot," a range of solutions looking for problems. 

Some of these technologies bring hope, and some play into our fears. Ultimately the project asks What kinds of societies are we building? What trade-offs are we willing to make? And do these techno-solutions help us succeed in controlling the virus, or only in controlling the hosts? 

Technologies of Hope and Fear was exhibited as part of the AI exhibition “You and I: Through the Algorithmic Lens” in Athens, 2021.

Links: https://techpandemic.theglassroom.org/#

Created, researched and directed by Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszynski as part of the Onassis Stegi Artists in Residency Program. 
Tactical Tech team contributors: 
Design: Yiorgos Bagakis 
Technical direction: Laurent Dellere  
Editorial: Christy Lange 
Copy-editing: Alexander Ockenden  
Collaborators: 
Research and production: Patrick Harvey  
Illustrations: Ann Kiernan  
Engineering: Bernardo Loureiro  
With special thanks to Daphne Dragona for support and feedback and to the Tactical Tech Team for project support. 

With support from: The Onassis Stegi: Concept development, artistic direction and digital production support. The project that was produced during the “Geographies of AI” residency by Onassis Stegi, organized in the context of the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab 2020. Co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA): Support on the international research component of the project.

Marek Tuszynski (PL), Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Tactical Tech, produces creative and social interventions that span various media, from film and radio to television, books, exhibitions, and the web. For the past 30 years, he has been working at the nexus of technology and politics, information and activism, and on the consequences of living in a quantified society. Stephanie Hankey (GB), Executive Director and co-founder of Tactical Tech, is a designer, activist, and social entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience, exploring the social and political impact of technology on society. She works across disciplines—as a curator, educator, and maker, and is currently a Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard.