The Natural Reverse of Knowledge

This project arises from an attempt to raise awareness of the paradoxical relationship between digitization and knowledge. Today’s digital media provides access to an abundance of information and potentially new ways of gaining knowledge. However, by generating, distributing, and making available massive amounts of data, digital media are simultaneously conveyors of instances of knowledge and non-knowledge. According to Martina Leeker, digital media are “characterized by a variety of forms and levels of non-knowledge and incomprehensibility”, which arise from the opacity of algorithms and computational performances unknown to users. As Matthias Koch explains, using the expression ‘non-knowledge’ serves to emphasize “the ‘natural’ reverse side of knowledge”, or the reciprocal relationship between these terms.