Follow the Body (English)
Der Körper als Interface - Widerstand in Zeiten digitaler Erschöpfung
Wir befinden uns im HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin. Im Theaterraum, wo sonst Stimmen über Bühnen hallen und Körper Geschichten erzählen. Hier wurden bei der Jahrestagung »Digital Interventions. Bodies, Infrastructures, Politics« am 10. Mai 2025 nun andere Körper sichtbar gemacht — digitale Körper, überwachte Körper, archivierte Körper. Zwischen Vorträgen, einer Performance und Workshops wurde das HAU zu einem Ort, an dem nicht nur Kunst, sondern auch Infrastrukturen, Machtverhältnisse und Formen des Widerstands thematisiert wurden. Die Künstlerin und Forscherin Joana Moll zeigte in ihrem Vortrag »Follow the Body: Materiality and Resistance in the Age of Data Extraction« eindringlich, wie unsere alltägliche Interaktion mit digitalen Geräten nicht nur Informationen erzeugt, sondern unsere Körper selbst verändert. Das Internet, laut Moll, sei die größte Infrastruktur der Gegenwart, und zugleich eine der unsichtbarsten. Die Server, Kabel, Plattformen und Ad-Tech-Systeme, die unsere digitalen Leben tragen, sind physisch existent, räumlich greifbar und doch weitgehend aus unserer Wahrnehmung verschwunden. Dabei entsteht ein Paradox: Wir sind ständig verbunden und zugleich abgeschnitten. Wenn wir das Smartphone betrachten, wenden wir uns gleichzeitig von der Umgebung ab. Unsere Körperhaltung verändert sich, unser Atem wird flacher, unsere Bewegungen repetitiv. Moll beschreibt dies als eine symbiotische Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Maschine, die auf einer massiven Asymmetrie beruht: Während unsere Aufmerksamkeit schrumpft, wächst im Hintergrund die Datenmenge, die über uns gesammelt, aggregiert und verkauft wird.
Cookies markieren in ihrer Analyse den Startpunkt dieser Transformation, nicht nur technisch, sondern symbolisch. Mit ihrer Einführung verschwand die Anonymität im Netz. Cookies verhalten sich wie Kreditkarten: Sie machen Nutzer*innen identifizierbar, analysierbar und monetarisierbar. Plattformen werden dadurch nicht mehr nur zu Orten der Kommunikation, sondern zu zentralen Handelsplätzen personalisierter Werbung, die das Netz finanzieren, mit unseren Körperdaten. Zentral ist dabei das System der sogenannten Data Brokers: Unternehmen, die aus öffentlichen und privaten Quellen umfassende Profile erstellen, basierend auf IP-Adressen, Standortdaten, Käufen, Verweildauern, Scrollverhalten. Diese Informationen werden nicht nur für personalisierte Werbung genutzt, sondern fließen in Macht- und Kontrollmechanismen ein, die Moll als Teil eines »neoliberalen Militarismus« beschreibt: eine Politik, die Freiheit verspricht, aber Überwachung perfektioniert. Der Werbemarkt, etwa durch Adint (Advertising Intelligence), dient längst nicht mehr nur kommerziellen Interessen, sondern ist Teil einer globalen Infrastruktur der Verhaltenssteuerung.
Besonders eindrucksvoll war Molls Blick auf den Körper als Ort des Widerstands, aber auch als das verletzlichste Glied dieser Infrastruktur. Unsere Haltung beim Scrollen, die reduzierte Atmung, die Monotonie der Fingerbewegungen sind nicht natürlich, sondern trainierte Muster. Wir lernen, mit weniger Bewegung zu leben. Unsere Körper passen sich an, sie werden Extensions des Systems. Das bedeutet nicht nur einen Verlust an Autonomie, sondern auch an Wahrnehmung: Was wir nicht mehr fühlen, können wir nicht mehr kritisieren. Moll ruft deshalb zu einer achtsamen Wahrnehmung auf. Widerstand beginnt im Kleinen: in der Aufmerksamkeit gegenüber neuen Körpermustern, in der Störung der Wiederholung, im Sichtbarmachen des Unsichtbaren. Ihre Arbeit versteht sich als Intervention, nicht frontal, sondern subtil. Nicht spektakulär, sondern alltäglich. Widerstand wird dort möglich, wo wir die Verbindung zwischen Körper, Interface und Infrastruktur wieder begreifen. Molls Vortrag hat zum Nachdenken angeregt, wie der Körper in der digitalen Welt von unsichtbaren, aber mächtigen Kräften geprägt wird. Der Körper wird nicht mehr nur als passives Objekt gesehen, sondern aktiv in den digitalen Raum integriert — er produziert Daten, erfüllt ständig Anforderungen und wird zum verlängerten Interface von Systemen, die oft außerhalb unserer Wahrnehmung agieren. Diese Entwicklung ist besonders beunruhigend, wenn man darüber nachdenkt, wie der Körper durch Technologien und Algorithmen in seiner Autonomie eingeschränkt wird, ohne dass wir es immer bewusst wahrnehmen. Inspirierend ist Molls Vorstellung, dass Widerstand gegen diese Mechanismen nicht unbedingt durch laute, sichtbare Aktionen entstehen muss, sondern durch subtile Irritationen und das Verschieben von Wahrnehmung. In einer Welt, in der wir ständig überwacht und analysiert werden, kann der Körper selbst zu einem Ort des Widerstands werden.
Vielleicht liegt die wirkliche Möglichkeit der Kritik nicht nur in der Sichtbarmachung dieser Machtstrukturen, sondern auch in der Art und Weise, wie wir uns selbst innerhalb dieses Systems bewegen und es durch kreative, ästhetische Praktiken hinterfragen. Wir fragen daher: Wie können wir als Individuen und als Gesellschaft aktiv mit diesen digitalen Schnittstellen umgehen? Wie können wir den Körper als Raum der Reflexion und der Auseinandersetzung mit den Kräften, die ihn durchdringen, nutzen? Und welche Praktiken können dabei helfen, neue Formen des Widerstands und der Handlungsmacht zu entwickeln, die uns nicht nur als passive Konsument*innen, sondern als aktive Akteur*innen innerhalb des digitalen Systems begreifen?
Dieser Text von Flora Hackenberger, Tara Thielitz und Nils Mornhinweg ist Bestandteil des Zines Error_404 WAYS TO RESIST Mikropraktiken für den postdigitalen Alltag, das links als PDF zum Download bereitgestellt ist.
Gallery with 4 images: »«
Joana Moll, in works such as »The Hidden Life of an Amazon User« (2019), seeks to unveil these hidden infrastructures. She exposes the staggering amounts of data and energy consumed behind interfaces that appear seamless and natural – that the aesthetics carefully crafted by tech companies project. Her work invites viewers to understand that websites are not ethereal constructs that appear magically on our screens, but the result of vast, resource-intensive systems maintained by corporate giants like Amazon Web Services. A single »buy now« click initiates not a simple action, but a cascade of millions of processes – both digital and physical. © Jonas Kollenda
1/41/4 Joana Moll, in works such as »The Hidden Life of an Amazon User« (2019), seeks to unveil these hidden infrastructures. She exposes the staggering amounts of data and energy consumed behind interfaces that appear seamless and natural – that the aesthetics carefully crafted by tech companies project. Her work invites viewers to understand that websites are not ethereal constructs that appear magically on our screens, but the result of vast, resource-intensive systems maintained by corporate giants like Amazon Web Services. A single »buy now« click initiates not a simple action, but a cascade of millions of processes – both digital and physical.
© Jonas Kollenda
In her presentation, Moll emphasized the disconnection between our perception and the material reality of these systems – and, crucially, the fact that the infrastructures we rely on are owned and operated by profit-driven corporations. She examines how our engagement with these services and devices leaves an imprint on our bodies. She describes users as prosumers – individuals who, in consuming, simultaneously produce data: the primary commodity of the internet. As we hunch over our devices, we participate in a kind of physical submission – as Moll poignantly puts it, »as we make ourselves smaller, the companies are getting bigger«.
This is the brutal reality of a system engineered by entities guided by profit. Its infrastructure follows their logic, their ideology. It is designed – and to use it, we must submit to that design. There is no negotiation. We do not shape it; we reproduce the ideology it encodes. © Jonas Kollenda
2/4 In her presentation, Moll emphasized the disconnection between our perception and the material reality of these systems – and, crucially, the fact that the infrastructures we rely on are owned and operated by profit-driven corporations. She examines how our engagement with these services and devices leaves an imprint on our bodies. She describes users as prosumers – individuals who, in consuming, simultaneously produce data: the primary commodity of the internet. As we hunch over our devices, we participate in a kind of physical submission – as Moll poignantly puts it, »as we make ourselves smaller, the companies are getting bigger«.
This is the brutal reality of a system engineered by entities guided by profit. Its infrastructure follows their logic, their ideology. It is designed – and to use it, we must submit to that design. There is no negotiation. We do not shape it; we reproduce the ideology it encodes.
In the project, I want to bridge our everyday media usage and the actors behind these big corporations – the individuals whose beliefs and ideologies are embedded in the devices we use every day, in the apps we log into every day, in the buttons we press and in the messenger services we use to text our mothers. The websites present a stripped-down version of these platforms: there is an abstract version of a feed – personal photos, art, memes, brands – but in order to consume it, you must submit to the design and the embedded ideology. This ideology is made explicit through quotes from figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman – the boys' club that controls the tech world and with that, to a certain extent our everyday lives. © Jonas Kollenda
3/43/4 In the project, I want to bridge our everyday media usage and the actors behind these big corporations – the individuals whose beliefs and ideologies are embedded in the devices we use every day, in the apps we log into every day, in the buttons we press and in the messenger services we use to text our mothers. The websites present a stripped-down version of these platforms: there is an abstract version of a feed – personal photos, art, memes, brands – but in order to consume it, you must submit to the design and the embedded ideology. This ideology is made explicit through quotes from figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman – the boys' club that controls the tech world and with that, to a certain extent our everyday lives.
© Jonas Kollenda
We have lost. The initial euphoria surrounding the internet has faded. What was once envisioned as a communal, liberating space has been overtaken by business models cloaked in the rhetoric of innovation – the only true innovation being the creation of ever-new ways to commodify: to commodify data, and with it, our behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
This seemingly immaterial, vaporous space has successfully created the illusion of neutrality – as if it simply exists, God-given – or perhaps more insidiously, the illusion of a shared, anarchic realm that early internet pioneers once hoped for. We navigate the internet with ease, unguarded, as though moving through nature. Terms like »cloud« reinforce this false sense of self-evidence, masking the vast infrastructures activated with every click. © Jonas Kollenda
4/4 We have lost. The initial euphoria surrounding the internet has faded. What was once envisioned as a communal, liberating space has been overtaken by business models cloaked in the rhetoric of innovation – the only true innovation being the creation of ever-new ways to commodify: to commodify data, and with it, our behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
This seemingly immaterial, vaporous space has successfully created the illusion of neutrality – as if it simply exists, God-given – or perhaps more insidiously, the illusion of a shared, anarchic realm that early internet pioneers once hoped for. We navigate the internet with ease, unguarded, as though moving through nature. Terms like »cloud« reinforce this false sense of self-evidence, masking the vast infrastructures activated with every click.
Full lecture by Joana Moll with an introduction by Matthias Grotkopp.
Where Does the Body Begin? Materiality, Resistance and the Quiet Collapse of the Self
Text by Anna Aust and Franziska Otto
In Joana Moll's artistic research, something curious happens: the internet stops being abstract. It gains mass. It takes shape. It becomes territorial, embodied, extractive. It occupies land, consumes air, reshapes time and quite literally changes how we breathe. This shift from immaterial to material and from seamless to suffocating is where her work begins to exert its full force. And yet, it is the body: our own, shrinking, increasingly automated body, that quietly anchors it all.
»As the body becomes increasingly compressed, the data collection machinery that lies beyond the interface, such as ad tech, AI and global intelligence networks, continues to expand.« Joana Moll
The Internet Is a Body. The Body Is the Internet
Moll's work is known for making visible what we are trained to overlook: the infrastructures that sustain digital life. She reveals how the cloud is not just a metaphor but a planetary-scale machine. How cookies ended online anonymity. How data centers in rural Ireland devour land, power and public resources. How platforms grow on attention, while the physical self is slowly compressed into fingertips and metadata.
In this system, the human body is not separate from the internet. It interacts with the interface. It becomes user and product. The body becomes crucial infrastructure just as vital and just as exploited as fiber-optic cables and server racks. Paradoxically, the more central the body becomes, the more it seems to disappear.
The Aesthetics of Compression
We often think of digital technology as expanding our capacities. But Moll's work suggests the opposite may be true. She describes how our bodies adapt to the shape of the screen. Rounded shoulders, forward-leaning necks or collapsing ribcages and shortened breaths. Our gestures become smaller and our perceptions narrower. The interface trains us to move less, sense less, question less. A single tap on a glass screen, which seems like the most frictionless action, triggers a cascade of extraction. The business model is encoded in the gesture. And so, the question arises: What are we training our bodies to become?
Seeing Systems and Feeling a Sense of Disconnection
Moll's visual investigation »The Hidden Life of an Amazon User« operates like forensic diagrams. It demonstrates the interface to reveal the backend: the emissions, surveillance, the entangled layers of labor, capital and code. In a world saturated with aestheticized critique, her work avoids hysteria or spectacle. She builds awareness and produces unease. And perhaps that is political strength: not to provide closure, but to reopen perception.
The Limits of Visibility?
Still, some questions remain. Moll's practice is often framed as critical, even resistant. But how far does visibility really go? What kind of agency does her work invite? Are we being moved to act or merely to observe? And who is the ›we‹ being addressed? Not all bodies are connected in the same way. Some are more extractable than others. Some are violently entangled in data capitalism without ever appearing as ›users‹ at all. So perhaps a more situated critique is needed, one that doesn't just visualize systems, but interrogates position, implication and power.
Inspired by the keynote, we created Reclaim the Body On shrinking selves, invisible infrastructures and how to move again, a zine to resist, reflect and reclaim. A small step towards taking back what is ours.
Constant screen use reshapes us.
Necks crane forward, spines curl in.
Our breath shrinks as rib cages collapse.
Eyes narrow into tunnels of glass.
We live in fight-or-flight: always on.
Our gestures?
Reduced to swipes, taps, scrolls.
To reclaim the body is to remember:
We are more than machines.
»We are learning how to move small.«
- Joana Moll
Lie flat on your back for 5 minutes.
Feel your breath without guiding it.
Place one hand on your ribs.
Observe whether they expand fully.
Pause here.
Let go of your phone. Sit. Breathe.
Embodied Practice – Digital Decompression
1. Inhale slowly for 4 counts, exhale for 6.
2. Notice the pressure of your seat and gravity on your spine.
3. Let your gaze move to the periphery.
— Unfocus and soften.
this is not detachment
it is attention
walk 15 minutes
without any device
hold an object
and describe it aloud
write a memory
that has no digital trace
this is not anti-technology
it is pro-agency
This is a call to widen the frame.
The shrinking of the self is not inevitable.
To resist is not only to say no,
it is to breathe, to sense, to reinhabit.
You are not just a user.
You are not just a data point.
You are not just a pair of eyes on a screen.
You are touch, rhythm, memory.
You are spatial, temporal, political.
Let this be a soft but steady revolt.
One gesture at a time.
One breath.
Reclaiming the body is resistance. Not against technology, but against becoming less human in its name.