For the 16th edition of Tactics&Practice, Aksioma’s discursive programme exploring contemporary investigative art, society, and new technologies, Are You a Software Update? interrogates how software systems govern interaction, perception, and decision-making. The programme considers the logics of participation embedded in platforms, applications, and networked environments, asking where the space for collective organisation and intervention still lies.
Participants:
2girls1comp, Alessandro Turchioe, Alan Butler, Alex Quicho, Charlotte Reuß, Clea Bourne, Daphne Dragona, Donatella Della Ratta, Eva Papamargariti, Iva Ramuš Cvetkovič, Joanna Bacas, Jordi Viader Guerrero, Lesia Kulchynska, msn gf, Nelly Yah Pinkrah, Noura Tafeche, Prince Lucija, Silvia Dal Dosso, Socrates Stamatatos, Sophie Publig, Tommaso Campagna
The edition will spread out through events from February until June, starting at Kino Šiška in Ljubljana with a kickoff conference:
Are you a software update? Are you compliant with your favourite platforms’ favourite terms and conditions? Does your content conform to community standards? Are your biases amplified by algorithmic biases?
Interrogating how the internet, as a constructed space, has come to dominate our understanding of the world, Are You a Software Update? confronts the pervasive influence of software systems in shaping our interactions and perceptions. Examining the shifting boundaries between agency and automation, the self and the system, the conference participants reflect on the fragility and exploitation of our informational ecosystems and ask where action and collective organisation can emerge within software systems that continuously update us.
CONFERENCE PART #1 @ Katedrala
15:00–16:30
- Donatella Della Ratta, Alessandro Turchioe: Act I: Data Haunted by Magritte’s Ghost (video essay)
- Noura Tafeche, Alex Quicho: She’s Evil, Most Definitively Subliminal (lecture performance)
- + conversation moderated by Socrates Stamatatos
CONFERENCE PART #2 @ Katedrala
17:00–19:00
- Daphne Dragona: Update Abort: When You Realise That Earth Is Not Just Another System (lecture)
- Nelly Y. Pinkrah: On Words and Worlds (lecture)
- Dr. Clea Bourne: Terraforming Tales of Software and Us (lecture)
- + Conversation moderated by Nora O’Murchú
CONFERENCE PART #3 @ Katedrala
19:30–21:00
- Tommaso Campagna, Jordi Viader Guerrero: THE VOID (hybrid pop-up streaming studio)
- Iva Ramuš Cvetkovič: Transformation of War, Fragmentation of Law and Dominance of Technology (lecture)
- Donatella Della Ratta: Ask Me for Those Unborn Promises That May Seem Unlikely to Happen in the Natural (video essay)
- Lesia Kulchynska: The Lure of War (video essay)
- + Conversation moderated by Iva Ramuš Cvetkovič
EXHIBITION OPENING @ Kamera
21:00–22:00
- Eva Papamargariti: A Whisper, a Murmur, a Roar
AFTER EVENT / msn gf, Prince Lucija live sets @ Pritličje [Mestni trg 2, Ljubljana]
22:30–2:00
Free entry! Registration required:
https://pretix.eu/aksioma/ayasu/
Full programme:
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Produced and organised by: Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
For the series: Tactics&Practice
In partnership with: Kino Šiška Center for Urban Culture, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana
Supported by: the Municipality of Ljubljana, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
Additional support:
The conference is part of the project .expub | Exploring Expanded Publishing supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union*, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Ljubljana and the Ministry of Public Administration.
Alan Butler’s participation is supported by Culture Ireland | Cultúr Éireann.
Donatella Della Ratta and Noura Tafeche’s activities are supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in Ljubljana.
Sophie Publig’s contribution is supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.
