DEMOKINO -- 
VIRTUAL BIOPOLITICAL AGORA: A PROJECTION

A Project by Davide Grassi

Demokino is a virtual parliament that through
topical film parables provides the voters
(participants) with the opportunity to decide on
issues, that paradoxically, have become the
essence of modern politics: questions of life,
including abortion, cloning, water privatization,
copyleft, euthanasia, genetically modified
organisms, and same sex marriage.

The project questions not only the utopia of a
contemporary virtual forum that is supposed to
open new ways of more direct and influential
participation, but also points out a much deeper
problem of modern democracy.

With its reduced narrative - the story is built on the
inner "pro and contra" dialogues of the protagonist
who is led around his home by "parliamentary
votes" based on the participants' decisions -
Demokino shows how these ethical dilemmas of
modern life suddenly become the core of our
political participation.

When the issue of life enters the political arena
and modern politics becomes biopolitics
democratic decisions reach an impasse: laws are
being debated on issues that actually cannot
tolerate any political decision. Majority rule -
problematic in itself - turns political regulations
into publicly legitimated acts of violence.

Demokino is a virtual parliament that displays how
politics precedes law. Law is just a utopian and
redundant technical procedure to cover the
political essence.

aksioma.org/demokino

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Slovenia.

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