D1G1TAL anthropophagy x ALGØRITHMIC cannibalism

Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez explores the devouring impetus latent in humans and their/our creations. ‘Anthropophagy’ and ‘cannibalism’ are often used as synonyms to describe the consumption of another human, but the two terms get differentiated in the Brazilian avant-garde Antropofagia of Oswald de Andrade’s Manifesto Antropófago (1928)—which devours both Brazilian colonial history and European cultural imports to spew a unique philosophy. Indigenous cultures played a significant role to inspire the moderns, but in the industrialization that followed, their cultural importance was considered an ‘obstacle’ to imported ill-fitting models of development. This lecture-performance therefore, dishes critique through a decolonial lens, discussing newer forms of colonization: in cyberspace, ranging from digital anthropophagy to extreme forms of algorithmic power and agency. Algorithmic cannibalism becomes more than a metaphor embedded into a cannibal capitalism that devours Nature, humans included. The performance-lecture thus, reflects on westernized monocultural mindsets that lack swarm intelligence to react appropriately, while the question remains: who is eating who?