Gradshow XPUB 2019

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Upsetting Settings presents graduation projects initiated by Alexander Roidl, Alice Strete, Angeliki Diakrousi, Joca van der Horst, Natasha Berting, and Zalán Szakács. The concept of this exhibition arises from the idea of the default setting, a situation in which a specific mode of interaction is selected automatically, pre-configured to work out of the box without the need to tinker with its underlying apparatus. Every system comes with default settings predefined by its creators, and most of the time, these settings remain unchanged by us, the users of such systems. These defaults do not represent our needs but are possibly the materialisation of biases from the system's makers, from corporate or political interests, from a society at large. The projects engage with the concept of default modes and propose interventions in their core structure/source/root so as to start thinking collectively about better places from which to begin. You are invited to become root users, active listeners, smart speakers, intentional eaters, counter trolls, sensorial spectators!

Upsetting settings results from a year of research done at the Experimental Publishing (XPUB) master in Fine Art and Design program of the Piet Zwart Institute. XPUB is a two-year course that prepares students to critically engage with societal issues and social practices within the fast changing field of art, design and cultural production. More specifically, XPUB focuses on the acts of making things public and creating publics in the age of post-digital networks. XPUB’s interests in publishing are therefore twofold: first, publishing as the inquiry and participation into the technological frameworks, political context and cultural processes through which things are made public; and second, how these are, or can be, used to create publics.

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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
• Publication Spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mT3UDxkBieiy8Vb12tUbLu3Y3fXEhvl4/view?usp=sharing