Project at AIAS

This project lies within the area of software studies and addresses a current shift in computing popularly exemplified by “big data” and in the businesses of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google. The shift implies a specific spatial logic – a “vector space” – where any kind of data contributes to generalizable models of anticipation. A vector space allows for new insights into e.g., cognitive processes, the formation of social relations, or the nature of a climate crisis, but also suggests an interplay between technology and mental, social or environmental processes, and a “generalized” media ecology that binds such domains together. 

The project’s outcome is an aesthetics and critique of contemporary interface culture, with a deeper reflection on how our media ecology is intertwined with our cultural practices. The main assumption is that the computational processes are over-layered by, and influence aesthetics: they affect what can be sensed and perceived, and as such, also our cultural forms and behaviors. The interplay between technological and cultural layers is also often addressed in the aesthetic practices themselves. Hence, the project’s suggested critique is based on an outline of contemporary software art practices within the domains of the mind, the social and the environmental. This includes projects that deal with language in social media, public interaction in “smart cities”, or how to represent a climate crisis.