The Future Behind Us: How Much is Your Democracy Worth?
<p>In 2000, during the presidential race between George Bush and Al Gore, a group of “Maverick Austrian Business People” launched a platform that gave US voters the possibility to auction off their votes to bidders on the internet. Thirteen US states attempted to shut down the project with temporary restraining orders and injunctions. The media circus around the project was mind-boggling. As for the maverick business people behind the scandalous proposal, they were not entrepreneurs, they were artists: Liz Haas and Lúzius Bernhard from UBERMORGEN. Their artistic intervention went viral long before “becoming viral” was part of our vocabulary. What does this say about the enduring confusion between fact and fiction, the opacity of democratic institutions under capitalism and the ease with which a duo of provocateurs can manipulate the attention of the mass media?</p>
Authors: Régine Debatty
Contributors: UBERMORGEN
Audio Engineer: Gašper Torkar
Producer: Marcela Okretič
Aksioma Institute for Contemporary Art
Part of: Tactics&Practice [podcast]