Rendering our virtual, net and digital discourses

Critical Acts – 9th October 2024
Rendering our virtual, net and digital discourses.

With a month to go to Critical Acts at the School of Digital Arts, our Creative Director Yinka Danmole unpacks some of the ways we’ve been thinking about the new iteration of Abandon Normal Devices (AND) and how we continue to curate our programmes in uncertain and extraordinary times.

It has been just under a year since our new leadership team took the helm at AND. Being a fresh addition to the organisation, I’ve been deeply moved by the countless stories shared about past events and festivals – a testament to the profound impact AND has had. As we chart our course forward, the question looms large: How do we build upon this incredible legacy? How can we continue to push boundaries and carve new intersections of art and digital technology?

At the heart of our approach to shaping our future programmes lies a deep curiosity in human connection and the influences that form our collective interpretation of the world around us, especially within the digital domain. Our identities and social dynamics are inherently being transformed by a vast repository of data and information, co-created between humans and pervasive algorithms.

Online communities and platforms are rewriting social contracts, incubating virtual dark matter economies, birthing new vectors of extraction and supercharging contemporary myths, imaginaries and ideologies. Emerging technologies like Web3, virtual worlds, and AI are already playing a critical role in reshaping our perceptions of labour, the way we interact, self organise, and to even how we perceive ourselves. In this era of uncertainty and immense possibility, how do we consider what this means for us and those at the margins? And, will more open systems and autonomy result in a less extractive digital world?

Critical Acts seeks to survey and give space to these questions and tensions head-on, fostering a night of reflective inquiry through anthropologic probes of digital and net culture, exploring both the concerns and opportunities presented by this juncture we are in.

For the evening on the 9th of October, we wanted to offer an opportunity to embrace a more open, deconstructive, experimental approach and divert away from linear and rigid structures. The performative essay format will be central to this as we invite artists to move beyond traditional modes of presentation, engaging audiences with critical thought and exploration through immersive and dynamic experiences.

Presentations by Petra, David, Michael-Jon and Nina will delve into the ways in which disparate platforms, networks and systems modulate our identities, communities, and political realities. They’ll interrogate our growing dependence on digital networks, use speculation as a tool to make commentary on the now and challenge what sort of futures virtual, digital and internet discourses are rendering.

Through all the works presented on the night, there is a thread of dialogue and conversation taking place. It’s been exciting to see all the invited practitioners respond to the original brief in this way and I think it’s a testament to the relationship we hope all who join us on the night at the School of Digital Arts (SODA), have with the event.

Whether this is your first time connecting with us or you’ve joined us somewhere along the way in AND’s 15 year journey, we hope to see you at an AND event soon. Keep connected with us on Instagram or by signing up to our newsletter.

Reading and Watching list:

Mindy Seu, Performing lectures
Alex Quicho, Everyone is a girl online
Ruby Justise Thelot, What is the Telos of Technology?
Joshua Citeralla, Extremely Online Politics

Image credits: Precursing (2023), Nina Davies. Image by Jonathan Basset, Matt’s Gallery; Image from Michael Jon Mizra; Alternate Presence, Image by Damian Griffiths. Courtesy of Seventeen Gallery.