Date: Friday 28 August
Time: 14:00-17:00
Location: Varia (Gouwstraat 3, Rotterdam)

The times of Cold War seem long gone. They impact, however, the what and how of Cold War ideologies that are implemented and made operative in Big Tech today. During the Cold War many colonised/occupied countries became supposedly independent, with ideologically opposing super powers forcing, or seducing, newly established free states into their realm of influence. Fueled by paranoid anxieties, those superpowers started an absurd and deadly race for dominance, power, and tech superiority, while pushing hegemonic claims onto countries of Latin America and Africa to secure access to resources.

For the fourth session of the Counter-Coloniality Seed Study Group, we will take a closer look at the logics of conspiracy and conspiracy theories. We have the gorgeous suspicion that their widespread influence across many aspects of contemporary life may be at least partly rooted in political, scientific and cultural realms of the Cold War. For this session, we will read from Nervous Systems: Brain Science in the Early Cold War by historian Andreas Killen, alongside journalist Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger and artist Trevor Paglen’s How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI to start our conversation. Please bring your favourite conspiracy theory to the conversation to share and discuss.

The Counter Coloniality seed investigates the manifold ways in which colonisation - as attitude, process, knowledge imposition, organisational model, force and output - is deeply embedded into the technologies we use everyday. This is evident in various aspects of technologies we use routinely; from the human and environmental cost of rare-earth element extraction like cobalt or lithium used in device components, to the outsourcing and underpayment of labour in Africa and Asia for annotating artificial intelligence data or moderating disturbing content on commercial social media.

Varia’s Counter Coloniality Seed organises a Study Group in 2026. We (usually) meet on the last Fridays of the month, from 14 - 16/17h, in Varia. We may take notes together and there will be snacks. We would love for participants to join as many sessions as they can, in order to get continuity in our discussions and our group dynamic, however this is not a requirement.

To join, please send a message to info@varia.zone with the subject title [Counter Coloniality Seed Study Group: Cold War Current] with your access needs and dietary requirements, if any.

This event falls within Varia’s Counter-Coloniality Seed research thread and is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.