IMAGIT – Create Visual Planetary Communication

The digitalisation is widely conceived as one of the major media shifts in human history, comparable in its impact to the fixation of thoughts and knowledge in written text or its accelerated distribution through the invention of book printing. Today we find ourselves in the on-demand and real-time dispositive of networked communication with ever new inclusive or creative forms of expression or information exchange from written messages to image- and time-based media. But while using all these features there is a subliminal awareness of an underlying physical, political and economic reality to this exchange – nothing comes for free, we are just often not quite sure in which currency we are paying for. It became a crucial part of the imagit-project to gather information both on recent developments in the use of new technical possibilities and devices and digital spaces such as social media, scientific platforms, and distribution channels as well as the new form of behaviour from the single individual to political institutions within. The term nonverbal communication has been thoroughly discussed, taking into consideration its qualities to overcome linguistic borders, culturespecific codes and hegemonies as well as the (temporary) withdrawal from control mechanisms. The issue of freedom of speech is currently one of the most crucial topics – anyone involved with the conception of an openly accessible communicative tool is requested to reflect on the negative outcomes of the provided infrastructure. Those who raise their voices right now in the name of the people often represent minorities. At the same time, online activity can be strongly tied to the neurotic feeling of being watched and controlled. Hereafter, another objective of the project was to contribute to clarifying the terms and effects of this inconceivability. Supporting this process, the consortium decided to work on tools that reveal different individual backgrounds that are leading to these outcomes in a transparent manner.