The Q in Qonspiracy: QAnon as a paradigm for future social-media-driven conspiracism
In this conversation between Wu Ming 1 and Florian Cramer, moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli, QAnon is discussed as a template for contemporary social-media-driven conspiracy fantasies that work simultaneously as games and a new kind of cults. By focusing on the mutation of conspiracy myths from countercultural phenomena to contemporary meme and influencer culture, the two speakers focus on QAnon and Covid-19-related conspiracy narratives.
The conversation is centered around Wu Ming 1’s forthcoming book La Q di Qomplotto: QAnon e dintorni. Come le fantasie di complotto difendono il sistema [The Q in Qonspiracy: QAnon and its surroundings. How Conspiracy Fantasies Defend the System], to be published on March 25th by Edizioni Alegre, Rome.
Organized by Disruption Network Lab, March 12th, 2021.
Disruption Network Lab: GLOBAL FINANCE, HOUSING & RESISTANCE
New Post has been published on https://www.aneddoticamagazine.com/disruption-network-lab-global-finance-housing-resistance/
Disruption Network Lab: GLOBAL FINANCE, HOUSING & RESISTANCE
Streaming Conference · May 29—30, 2020
EVICTED BY GREED explores the nexus of global hidden money, speculation in real estate and very real eviction.
The conference investigates how speculative finance drives the global and local housing crisis, and gathers experts & activists from around the world to share and find counter-strategies. Disruption Network Lab
In cooperation with Transparency International.
Streaming Conference · May 29—30, 2020
disruptionlab.org/evicted-by-greed
In English language.
Examining the intersection of politics, technology, and society, the Disruption Network Lab exposes the misconduct and wrongdoing of the powerful.
Disruption Network Lab: GLOBAL FINANCE, HOUSING & RESISTANCE
New Post has been published on https://www.aneddoticamagazine.com/disruption-network-lab-global-finance-housing-resistance/
Disruption Network Lab: GLOBAL FINANCE, HOUSING & RESISTANCE
Streaming Conference · May 29—30, 2020
EVICTED BY GREED explores the nexus of global hidden money, speculation in real estate and very real eviction.
The conference investigates how speculative finance drives the global and local housing crisis, and gathers experts & activists from around the world to share and find counter-strategies. Disruption Network Lab
In cooperation with Transparency International.
Streaming Conference · May 29—30, 2020
disruptionlab.org/evicted-by-greed
In English language.
Examining the intersection of politics, technology, and society, the Disruption Network Lab exposes the misconduct and wrongdoing of the powerful.
GHOSTS IN THE WOODS AND UNCANNY ENTITIES
On How to Cover the Italian «No Tav» Movement
Keynote speech by Wu Ming 1 at
CITIZENS OF EVIDENCE: Independent Investigations for Change
17th Event of the Disruption Network Lab
Berlin, September 20-21, 2019
Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin, Studio 1.
Wu Ming 1 (Author & Writer, Wu Ming Foundation, IT).
Moderated by Alexandra Weltz-Rombach (Author & Filmmaker, DE).
The Wu Ming collective is more known abroad as a «band of writers» authoring a particular strand of «metahistorical fiction», i.e. books like Q, Altai, Manituana and The Army of Sleepwalkers; however, in the course of the 2010s they've been exploring different territories. Very often, they’ve been literally exploring territories on foot.
By writing the books they called UNOs [Unidentified Narrative Objects] they've been trying to map – as an act of re-imagination – the elusive lands where «creative non-fiction» becomes ever more hybrid. Even when they are "solo" projects, i.e. they are signed by an individual member of the Wu Ming collective, these books are always collaborative efforts, the process is very open and participatory, and it remains so after publication.
A case in point is provided by the work Wu Ming 1 did to cover the so-called No Tav movement, opposing the construction of a high-speed railway in the Susa Valley, in the Western Alps. On a continental scale No Tav [No Treno ad Alta Velocità] are the most long-lasting, enduring movement opposing a mega-project, a public infrastructure which they consider not only useless and unbelievably expensive, but also dangerous for the environment and their lives.
The struggle started in 1991. 28 years later, the movement is still effectively slowing down the project, which was modified and downsized many times by the government. However, there’s much more than that: the movement has the cultural hegemony in the Susa Valley, influences the whole political life of the region and keeps making successful experiments in participation, self-management and even collective property. Police violence, judiciary repression, arrests, defamation, demonization… Nothing could defeat them; they’re still there. How could that happen?
Wu Ming 1 tried to answer that question in his UNO Un viaggio che non promettiamo breve. 25 anni di lotte No Tav [We Don't Promise That This Trip Will Be Short. 25 Years of No Tav Struggles] (2016). In the course of three years 2013-2016, he worked as a historian, a gonzo journalist, a geographer, a horror/sci-fi novelist and an activist, all rolled into one. The method consisted in going very deep into the No Tav movement, taking part in several key moments of the struggle, interviewing dozens of activists, merging oral history with archival work, blending fiction and non-fiction, walking in the woods and climbing the mountains of the Val di Susa.
In his keynote speech, he explains his method and the techniques he used to investigate the movement and write the book.
