Titled Freedom as Control?, this video essay explores the dialectical nature of freedom in the context of algorithmic governmentality. In a society of control, the last territory for exploitation lies in human consciousness. Byung-Chul Han writes in Psychopolitics:” I’m my own slave and master. “ The current ways of exploitation can undertake impeccably because it is “I” exploit “myself”.  Under such a psychological switch, freedom has evolved as an ideological tool in a time of digital neoliberalism so to exploit more efficiently and invisibly. Once a dream of self-autonomy to anticipate, now a way of governance, when facing a doomed fate of self-destruction, can individuals rewrite the meaning of freedom? How can individuals emancipate from the tyranny of invisible governance which operates through dreams, opportunities and chance?

This essay proposes six modes of resistance regaining agency in cinematic experiences.

1. To Obscure_The Conversation
2. To Confront_Slow Horses S5E6
3. To Start a Revolt_Severance S2E10
4. To be Audacious_Slow Horse S5E3
5. To Disappear_Anon
6. To Spill it Out_Citizenfour

There is a long history of resistance to tyranny from individuals to communities. How relevant these methods can count for today’s milieu and how to keep people’s resistance adequate for the future? These remaining questions are beyond the scope of this video essay but here Freedom as Control? attempts to call for your attention.