In the framework of “Offene FH” of the Fachhochschule Dortmund and HMKV’s exhibition “Whistleblowers & Vigilantes. Figures of Digital Resistance” the HMKV is showing the movie “The Net” in cooperation with Fachhochschule Dortmund and Kino im U e.V.
The Net – Unabomber, LSD and Internet
Germany 2003
Director: Lutz Dammbeck
documentary film
35 mm
121 min.
In 1930, the Viennese mathematician Kurt Gödel shakes the foundations of mathematics with his incompleteness theorems. He proves that every formal-logical system has problems that are not solvable or conclusively determinable. The Truth is superior to provability.
Between 1978 and 1995, the USA was shaken by a series of bomb attacks. The targets of the letter bombs and pipe bombs used were academics from various elite universities and managers of large airlines, prompting the FBI to dub the person behind them "Unabomber“. In 1996, the FBI arrested Ted Kaczynski, a former professor of mathematics.
Why does a mathematician, apparently, become a terrorist? The search for an answer goes back to the period from the 1940s to the 1960s when science, art and technology suddenly appeared to be opening up new horizons in every direction. The foundations of the modern age were laid by cybernetics, system theory, multimedia art, and new concepts in psychology and military research. They formed the basis for the global systems of networked machines whose essence is shaped by mathematics, logic and binary code.
The film shows the designers, engineers and agents of the system. One of them dropped out and tried to stop machines. In the end, mathematics was turned into art. But at what price?
Panel Discussion
Following the film screening there will be a panel discussion between Lutz Dammbeck, director and producer of the film The Net, J.U. Lensing, sound designer of The Net, and Dr. Inke Arns, Artistic Director of Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) and curator of the exhibition Whistleblowers & Vigilantes.
With: John Brockman (edge.org), editor; Stewart Brand, ex-hippie and cyber pioneer; Heinz von Foerster, constructivist; Robert Taylor, co-founder of the ArpaNet; David Gelernter, computer scientist, and Ted Kaczynski’s neighbors, Butch Gehring and Chris Waits as well as Ted Kaczynski himself in a letter exchange with Lutz Dammbeck
Production: Lutz Dammbeck Filmproduktion Hamburg, in co-production with the Südwestrundfunk (SWR), in cooperation with Arte Germany GmbH, generously supported by Filmförderung Hamburg GmbH, Filmbüro Nordrhein-Westfalen e. V., Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH, Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturelle Filmförderung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Media Desk Brussels
In cooperation with
Kino im U e.V.