Austria, Senegal and UK / 2019 / 14mins / Experimental / French, Wolof, English, and German

Shot in Dakar with the participation of leading Senegalese musicians, poets, and graffiti artists, ALGO-RHYTHM probes the rise in the algorithmic management of daily life and the insidious threats it poses to human rights and agency. Using hip hop, drama, street art, and data-driven filmmaking, Manu Luksch’s film explores how our embrace of machine intelligence, refracted through the slick interfaces of smartphone apps, makes us vulnerable to manipulation by political actors.

Manu Luksch

As a filmmaker who works outside the frame, Manu Luksch has been researching the effects of emerging technologies on daily life, social relations, urban space, and political structures. Currently, as Resident Artist at The School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London and Somerset House London, she is investigating the rise of the 'Algorithmic City', with a focus on corporate-governmental relationships and the social effects of predictive analytics. Her films and art works are included, amongst others, in the Collection de Centre Pompidou, the BFI National Archive, and the Core Collection at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and were awarded Best Feature Documentary, Moscow International Documentary Film Festival 2016; Best Film, Austrian Film Critics Awards 2017; Best Feature Documentary Soundtrack, DOK.fest Munich 2016; ELEVATE Artivism Award 2015; Marianne.von.Willemer Prize for Digital Art 2012, City of Linz /Ars Electronica Centre. Learn More