A series of dialogues curated by Berliner Gazette at transmediale 2016

The Snowden archives encompass documents leaked by former NSA subcontractor Edward Snowden and then published in part by major newspapers including the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Der Spiegel. These revelations initiated a global debate about the role of secret services in democracies, citizen rights in the age of digital networks, and big data and the industries of prediction.

By disclosing the inner workings of a clandestine government-industry-nexus, the Snowden archives represent a kind of collective subconscious: something that society was never meant to learn about itself, its past, present, and future. In that sense the Snowden files can be seen as a message from "children from an era that is yet to be received," as Kim Ki-Duk has said. Yet the interpretations of even the published documents remain unfinished, due to their cryptic langauge and specialized information. And only a small percentage have been published. We can expect more revelations to emerge in the near future, though it may take decades before they all enter the public domain.

In this sense, the Snowden archives not only represent a repressed awareness of the design of our social and political present, they also represent an awareness yet to come, provided we can develop the tools and capacities to decode and share them. How can we render this awareness and knowledge common and incorporate it as a vital part of our common history and common future?

Tacit Futures: Diving Into Snowden Archives is the follow-up to UN|COMMONS and a cooperation between Berliner Gazette and transmediale in the context of the Tacit Futures project by Berliner Gazette.