Reworlding the Unimaginable
Research Exhibition
Dream Farm Commons, Oakland, CA
August 17 - September 7, 2024
︎︎︎ Opening Reception: August 17, 2-5 pm
︎︎︎ World-Builder Teach-Ins: August 24, 2 - 6 pm
︎ In person or attend online Sign up on Zoom
︎︎︎ Closing Reception: September 7, 2-5 pm
︎︎︎ Tickets: FREE
World-Builder Teach-Ins: August 24, 2 - 6 pm
Teach-ins:
⭐️ How Tech went Right: The Rise of Reactionary Politics in Silicon Valley and Online - Becca (Stanford & Tech Workers Coalition)
⭐️ Toward a People's University: Reprogramming Power in Tech - Boink & Cat (Stanford Tech For Liberation)
⭐️ Building with Blinders: Tech Complicity in Militarism and Labor's Ability to Combat it - Mark (Former Google Engineer, No Tech For Apartheid)
⭐️ Remaking Tech from Below: Collective Action School - Emily Chao (Collective Action School)
Closing Event Artist Talk: September 7, 2-5pm
⭐️ Dorothy R. Santos, Ph.D. (she/they) is a Filipino American writer, artist, and media scholar. She earned her Ph.D. in Film and Digital Media with a designated emphasis in Computational Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Art Department and Principal Faculty for the Creative Technologies program the the University of California, Santa Cruz.
⭐️ Xiaowei R. Wang, PhD is an artist, writer, organizer and coder. They are the author of the book Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech In China's Countryside, a 2023 National Book Foundation Science and Literature Award winner. Their multidisciplinary work over the past 15 years sits at the intersection of tech, digital media, art, and environmental justice. As of 2023, they are one of the stewards of Collective Action School (formerly known as Logic School), an organizing community for tech workers, a faculty member at ELISAVA’s Master in Design for Responsible AI and a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center on Race and Digital Justice.
⭐️ Kelley O’Leary is an interdisciplinary artist based in El Cerrito, CA. She received a MFA in Art Studio from University of California, Davis and a BA in Art with a minor in Anthropology from University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work has been exhibited at San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Root Division, Jan Shrem & Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, 120710 Gallery, Well Well Projects, Pallas Gallery, Incline Gallery, and Studio 106 LA among others. She has been an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute, Bullseye Glass, Irving Street Projects and VR Art Camp. She was the recipient of the Dean’s Research Fellowship, the Mary Lou Osborn Award and LeShelle and Gary May Art Purchase Prize at University of California, Davis. Kelley is a member of Imaginaries of the Future Collective, a self-organizing nomadic collective of artists and thinkers founded by Beatriz Cortez. She is co-curator of the Bay Area-based new media art salon, Living Room Light Exchange.
Reworlding the Unimaginable draws connections between big tech and the global impact of modern-day technology while highlighting ongoing work to create alternative futures. This project goes beyond the influence of science fiction-based themes of future dystopian and utopian narratives and platforms future world builders of today. Reworlding the Unimaginable challenges the myth of technological solutionism (Tech will save us) by examining the militarized history of the tech industry and exposing its deeply intertwined relationship to community destabilization, digital colonialism, and late capitalism.
Reworlding the Unimaginable focuses on cultural workers, disruptors, activists, and organizers who are radically reimagining the world through their current praxis as a foundation for fighting oppressive systems and envisioning a world that prioritizes people over profit. Through a research-based approach to art making, Macro Waves invites the community to collaborate on an interactive installation that weaves together technology’s connections to war, labor movement uprisings, technological advancements, and environmental climate catastrophes while highlighting tech justice activists, paving the way for alternative futures. Reworlding the Unimaginable zooms in on present-day visionaries designing solutions and building for a future world that centers collective liberation and freedom over profit as a way to challenge the status quo and propel us toward a more equitable and sustainable future. During the duration of this project, Macro Waves invites viewers to add to the installation and will host a series of world-builder teach-ins and discussions focusing on alternative futures.
Additional Links
Press Release / Media Kit