transmediale 2014 | Beautiful 0s and ugly 1s

On the complexity and poetics of the digital

With Olia Lialina and James Bridle
At Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin
Fri, 31.1.2014

The last years were very productive in recognizing digital culture and unveiling its aesthetics. Artists and designers -- driven by the desire to show zeros and ones in all their glory -- transferred immaterial matters to tangible objects, exposed pixels, re-contextualised artefacts of everyday digital culture. There is still a lot to come and to admire. The question is though how does this activity correlate with the simultaneous process of making computers invisible by hiding algorithms, interfaces, hardkeys, cables, users? Maybe they are not at all reciprocal? Can it be that 0s and 1s are wrong symbols for the digital?

What do we mean by "the digital"? Anything created on a computer? Anything on a screen? Made out of code? Active? Networked? The speakers will address this "binary" approach where things are digital or analogue, physical or virtual, real or something else, visible or invisible... They focus rather on the effect of things rather than their nature, the experience we have with them, and the work that they do in the world.