Robotron. Code und Utopie: Ein Gespräch mit Francis Hunger und Jan Wenzel

In the organizer's words:

The triumphant advance of computers and microelectronics since the 1960s is often referred to as the "third industrial revolution". In the GDR, the name Robotron in particular stood for the new technology that was changing all areas of the economy. Looking back on the history of the combine, the technical possibilities and the social hopes attached to them, as well as the political and economic contradictions that ultimately led to the failure of the GDR, are condensed. With photographs, film narratives, installations and graphic works, some of which were created in the GDR, the exhibition takes a look at these developments.

Exhibiting artist Francis Hunger and author and publisher Jan Wenzel will be in conversation:

In his practice, Francis Hunger combines artistic research and media theory with the possibilities of narrative. In the exhibition Robotron. Code and Utopia, he presents the work Statistical Statistical Hypnagogia. In it, he examines how bureaucracy, statistics and computer technology shaped everyday administrative life in the GDR. As a Robotron expert, he researches topics such as software development in the GDR.

Jan Wenzel is an author and publisher at Spector Books. As co-curator of Robotron. Code and Utopia, he has written an essay for the exhibition space that traces the connections between geopolitics and global markets and questions conventional ideas that have become entrenched in the narrative of a "socialist" past.