China, AI and the West's Free Speech Crackdown | Ash Sarkar Meets Ai Weiwei

Join us at EartH Hackney on Monday 16 February to see Ash Sarkar in conversation with Aaron Bastani, discussing 'Why the Right is Winning': https://dice.fm/event/wwrypg-downstre... Sign up for the new Downstream Newsletter here: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters/t... Over the past three years, the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people has become a flash point for freedom of speech in the West. Expressing solidarity with Palestinians has given Western governments an excuse to crack down on dissenters. There has been intimidation and job insecurity at one end of the scale, through to brutal policing, arrests, and extraditions at the other. Our guest on Downstream this week knows a thing or two about censorship. Artist Ai Weiwei holds the unusual position of having been censored in both China and Europe. In conversation with Ash Sarkar, they discuss how rising authoritarianism in many Western nations represents a fragility at the heart of the liberal political project. What was it like being interrogated over 50 times by Chinese authorities, and what kind of relationship did Ai Weiwei develop with his captors? Why did he choose to be an artist, rather than a journalist? And what is his art in service of? 00:00 Intro 00:54 Censorship Isn’t Just for Authoritarian States 03:02 Privacy is Over 05:48 Political Scapegoating 08:06 Pro-Gaza Protestors 09:42 The Rising Authoritarianism in Germany 12:20 Exile Under Mao and Xi 14:52 When Does Art Become Journalism? 15:56 A Socialist Model of Art 16:16 Arrest and Interrogation in China 20:33 Is Ai Weiwei More Famous Than His Art? 23:25 On Being Misunderstood 25:59 The Differences Between European and Chinese Censorship 29:01 Shame as an Act of Censorship 32:22 Live Streaming the Taipei Tower Free Climb: Are We Seeing Too Much? 37:57 On Individualism, Collectivism, Uniformity and Plurality 42:13 How Does Ai Weiwei Describe His Political Philosophy? 45:07 Suspicion of Ideology 47:12 Can AI Make Good Art? 48:56 On Andy Warhol Support our work: http://novara.media/support Buy Novara Media merch: https://shop.novaramedia.com/ Discuss the show on Reddit:   / novara_media