Open Source: What Street View Data Reveals About China's Minority Policy

The media art collective Total View used an algorithm to analyze millions of publicly available Street View images from across China. The high-resolution images document how church crosses, minarets, and Arabic script are being removed from public spaces.

At the KOSMOS Festival, the artists will offer insights into their work. How did the idea for this project come about? How does the algorithmic research approach work?

In the subsequent panel discussion, Total View and freelance journalist Vivien Chang will discuss how the media art project evolved into a journalistic investigation for *DIE ZEIT*. What additional sources were used to verify, supplement, and contextualize the findings? How does China’s assimilation policy manifest itself beyond the streetscape? And why is the Chinese government taking such rigorous action against ethnic and religious minorities?

Tenzyn Zöchbauer of the Tibet Initiative Germany will analyze the impact of these policies on the lives of those affected: How is China’s assimilation policy changing the daily lives of the Tibetan community? What does the suppression of cultural and religious forms of expression mean for people both at home and in exile?