Politics and Practices of Secrecy
Institute of North American Studies, King’s College London
14-15 May, 2015
In the wake of the Snowden revelations about the surveillance capabilities of intelligence agencies, this interdisciplinary symposium gathers experts to discuss the place and implications of secrecy in contemporary culture and politics.

14 May, 6.30-8.30, Edmund J. Safra Lecture Theatre
Keynote Lecture: Secrets of the Dark Net, Jamie Bartlett
Jamie Bartlett, author of The Dark Net and member of the think tank, Demos, will be giving this keynote lecture on the secret side of the Internet. Bartlett will discuss some of the net’s most shocking and unexplored subcultures including trolling, neo-Nazis, child pornography, bitcoin and crypto-anarchy. He will examine how people behave under the conditions of real or perceived anonymity online, and what it means for society today.

Artist Zach Blas will be a respondent to Jamie’s lecture, discussing his latest project on what he calls the Contra-Internet. Recognizing the Internet as a premier arena of control today, contra-internet is both a refusal of, or exodus from, the internet and also an attempt to build aesthetico-political alternatives to its infrastructures.
15 May, Edmund J. Safra Lecture Theatre​
9-9.15
Introduction: Secrecy’s Frame
Clare Birchall (King’s College London) & Matt Potolsky (University of Utah)

9.15-10.45
Roundtable 1: Between Opacity and Openness
·      Mark Fenster (University of Florida) ‘Secrecy and the Hypothetical State Archive’
·      Zach Blas (University of Buffalo) ‘Informatic Opacity’
·      Mikkel Flyvverbom (Copenhagen Business School) ‘Transparency, Secrecy and the Limits of Knowledge’
·      Vian Bakir (Bangor University) ‘Deceptive Organised Persuasive Communication: (a) Misdirection and (b) Secretly Altering Reality to Fit the Lie you want to Tell’
11.15-12.30
Roundtable 2: Aesthetics of the Secret
·      John Beck (University of Westminster) ‘Photography’s Open Secret’
·      Neal White (Artist, Bournemouth University) ‘Secrecy and Art in Practice’
·      Clare Birchall (King’s College London) ‘Art “After” Snowden’
12.30-1.30: Lunch
1.30-3.00
Roundtable 3: Open Secrets
·      Jack Bratich (Rutgers University) ‘Spectacular Secrecy and the Secret Sphere: Rumsfeld, Anonymous, and Snowden’
·      Deme Kasimis (Yale University) ‘Passing as Open Secrecy: Migrants and the Performance of Citizenship in Classical Greek Thought’
·      Adam Piette (Sheffield University) ‘The Open Secret of Nuclear Waste’
·      Matt Potolsky (University of Utah) ‘Beyond Fiction: The NSA and Representation’
3.30-4.45
Roundtable 4: Covert Spheres
·      Timothy Melley (Miami University) ‘The Democratic Security State: Operating Between Secrecy and Publicity’
·      Øyvind Vågnes (University of Copenhagen) ‘Drone Warfare and the Language of Precision’
·      Hugh Urban (Ohio State) ‘The Silent Brotherhood: Secrecy, Violence, and Surveillance from the Brüder Schweigen to the War on Terror’
5.00-5.30
Summary: Secrecy’s Future
Eventbrite ticket for Politics and Practices of Secrecy: http://politicsofsecrecy.eventbrite.co.uk/ 
Eventbrite ticket for Secrets of the Dark Net Keynote by Jamie Bartlett: http://secretsofdarknet.eventbrite.co.uk​