Gradshow XPUB 2019

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The concept behind 'Upsetting settings' arises from the defaults of technology. In every system there are settings predefined by its creators, that most of the time stay untouched by us, as users. It's their default, not ours, but it's up to us to change it. Society is made of similar preset frameworks that we take for granted. The projects in this exhibition engage with these different default modes and intervene in their core structure/source/root. You are invited to become root users, active listeners, smart speakers, intentional eaters, counter trolls, sensorial spectators!

'Upsetting settings' presents graduation projects initiated by Alexander Roidl, Alice Strete, Angeliki Diakrousi, Joca van der Horst, Natasha Berting and Zalán Szakács. The works resulted from a year of research done at the Experimental Publishing (XPUB) master in Fine Art and Design program of the Piet Zwart Institute. XPUB focuses on the acts of making things public and creating publics in the age of post-digital networks. It uses publishing as the inquiry and participation into the technological frameworks, political contexts, and cultural processes through which things are made. This supports an artistic practice where the default modes can be questioned and challenged.

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One-liners

Alexander Roidl Poetic Software challenges the default mode of software as a tool where functionality and productivity are predominant through an intervention that involves software as a non-functional, emotional, and cultural object of artistic practice.

   Alice Strete

Is it time to eat, or is there no more time to eat? questions the default mode of techno-solutionism through an intervention that subverts the culture of reviews, peering through the lens of food to shed light onto an ideology built on patterns of authoritativeness and bland lifestyle choices.

    Angeliki Diakrousi

Let's amplify unspeakable things challenges the default mode of authoritative voices, that establish exclusive speech platforms, through an intervention that creates a safe space for excluded voices to be explored, in situated meetings and on an online audio archive.

   Joca van der Horst

The Smart Speaker Theatre questions the default mode of smart speakers as digital assistants, through an intervention that involves kidnapping a Google Home and having it interrogated by a team of rogue speakers and by you, their user.

   Tash Berting

Instant Warnet confronts the default mode of who is included and who is excluded in contemporary social media spaces through an intervention that uses play and performance to turn the tables on networks of harassment online.

   Zalán Szakács

Eigengrau challenges the default mode of rituals in the club space through an intervention that involves a collective experience while creating a transcendental oneness for body and soul through help of light, sound, and space.

Links

• Gradshow concept and title pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/gradshow_xpub_2019
• Gradshow equipment:
  • https://hrnl-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/gonai_hr_nl/Ea-FtyLM0bxConA_hN7f1t4Bm406iloDAkF1Y5OGUAqaAg?e=b9joaE
  • https://pad.xpub.nl/p/grad_show_2019_equipment
• Gradshow programme/production: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/grad-programme