Nuits sonores Lab
Techno-politics
May 28 – June 1st 2025
Hôtel 71 · H7 · Grandes Locos, Lyon
Nuits sonores Lab
Techno-politics
The year 2025 opened with an image: Elon Musk, the head of one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, as well as Tesla and SpaceX, making two Nazi salutes at the inauguration of the new President of the United States of America. It was a gesture that crystallises the alliance between reactionary nationalism and techno-capitalism, one further reinforced by the funding given to Donald Trump by Meta and Spotify. But what consequences will the concentration of power in the hands of the broligarchy have for the rest of the world? How can we fight back against the spread of racist and sexist ideologies that impose the law of the strongest on a global scale? And, how can the independent culture sector continue to exist and equip itself to contend with these platforms, upon which it still relies for visibility?
The rise of MAGMA (Meta, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon) is symptomatic of the profound recalibration of the global economy in favour of Big Tech. According to economists Cédric Durand and Yánis Varoufákis, we are now witnessing the advent of techno-feudalism, in which digital giants are progressively supplanting the traditional mechanisms of capitalism. Their domination is built around cloud capital; the platforms are fuelled by the income generated from the free contributions of internet users.
With 90% of online searches controlled by Google, and YouTube and Instagram reaching more than 2.5 billion users in 2023, the concentration of global data in the possession of a handful of companies poses an immense threat to democracy. Enjoying a virtual monopoly on new information and communication technologies, the MAGMA giants are exerting a worrying influence over the public debate via their complex algorithms.
This hyper-control over information has also given rise to techno-political meddling in conflicts, which could have dramatic consequences in times of geopolitical crisis. In December 2023, a Human Rights Watch report accused Meta of systematically censoring Palestinian voices around the world on Instagram and Facebook, thereby obstructing the dissemination of information on Israeli war crimes and limiting the mobilisation of international support.
Furthermore, since 7 October 2023, investigations by the independent media outlets +972 and Local Call have revealed the Israeli army’s considerable reliance on technologies developed by Google, Microsoft and Amazon – which, according to one of its spokespersons, provide it with greater “operational effectiveness” in carrying out its ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
In Europe, the European Commission has opened an investigation into TikTok following suspicions of Russian interference in the Romanian presidential elections. The Romanian authorities have accused the Chinese application of facilitating the manipulation of the 2024 elections in favour of Calin Georgescu, the pro-Russian far-right candidate who surprised everyone by winning the first round on 24 November. Despite Meta and TikTok having taken measures to ban Russian state media in order to combat foreign interference since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the platforms remain powerful tools for Russian propaganda. On the internet, various European countries have fallen victim to disinformation attacks, such as those carried out by the APT28 hacker group or the Russian network Portal Kombat, aimed at weakening Western support for Ukraine.
In 2025, it has become more essential than ever to deconstruct the fictions shaped by engineers of chaos, and to decolonise the narratives of the past in order to strengthen our understanding of the present and build for the future. In addition to international tension, economic crises and geopolitical conflicts, structural challenges are having an impact on our cultures, our democracies and our collective imagination. In the face of this urgent situation, Nuits Sonores Lab is opening up a space for debate, reflection and resourcefulness at the heart of the festival, so that we can collectively claim the upper hand on this new techno-political frontline.
First names
Angie Gaudion
Framasoft is a non-profit organisation dedicated to popular education on digital issues and cultural commons. It leads, pursues and participates in a wide range of initiatives aimed at facilitating empowerment through digital spaces.
Au-delà du club
Au-delà du Club, a research laboratory for a more inclusive nightlife, and Réinventer la Nuit, a collective that develops concrete tools and spaces for dialogue to tackle gender-based and sexual violence by and for DJs and music professionals, are joining forces to assess the state of the sector in the post-#MeToo era.
Chal Ravens
Music journalist published in The Guardian, The Wire, Pitchfork, and The London Review of Books, among others, and co-host of the No Tags music podcast, Chal Ravens is a specialist in alternative music ecosystems, particularly electronic music.
Elijah
Author, DJ, and co-founder of the label Grime Butterz, Elijah is the creator of the concept of creative resilience through his project Yellow Squares. This project is based on his daily writing on sustainable artistic creation, electronic music, grime & rap, web3, community, social media, and other curiosities in the form of short notes published on Instagram. Elijah is also a specialist in the use of social media for the creative community.
Günseli Yalcinkaya
Günseli Yalcinkaya is a London-based writer and researcher. Her work on internet folklore explores the relationship between emerging technologies and the myths embedded within these systems. She is also the co-organiser of Cybernetic Serendipity: Towards AI, a one-day symposium held at the ICA in London in February 2024.
Histoires Crépues
Co-founders of the media platform Histoires Crépues, Seumboy and Reha openly dissect France’s colonial history and its legacies to shed light on current affairs. With humour, Histoires Crépues offers a constructive and well-referenced approach to education.
Julie Ackermann
Translator and critic, Julie Ackermann is the author of Hyperpop – Pop in the Age of Digital Capitalism. With her writing, she invites us to explore the musical genre hyperpop, this ambiguous aesthetic, which embraces its era through artificiality, technological fetishism, limitless commercialisation, and its obsession with smoothness and youth.
Mutant Radio
Mutant Radio is an independent radio station based in Tbilisi, Georgia. It broadcasts DJ sets, interviews, talk shows, and live-streamed performances. Reflecting the diversity of its guests and residents, Mutant Radio is designed as a versatile entity that evolves in sync with the music it showcases.
Nicolas Houguet
Writer and journalist, Nicolas Houguet explores the worlds of cinema, litterature, and music. Since 2022, he has been working with the Blast media team, where he presents the docdocdoc show, a way of tackling and developing the topics of our time.
Radio Alhara
Radio Alhara is a community radio station broadcasting from Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Amman to the world. The platform hosts a wide range of formats, from live music sets to audio documentaries. Radio Alhara grew in public notoriety in 2021 when it launched a solidarity campaign in support of the Sheikh Jarrah protests, untitled Sonic Liberation Front.
