[spectre] Beyond the Interface - London - ends this weekend.

[furtherfield]

Beyond the Interface - London - ends this weekend.

http://www.furtherfield.org/programmes/exhibition/beyond-interface-london

Zach Blas, Branger_Briz, Mez Breeze, Heath Bunting, Jennifer Chan,
Francesca da Rimini, Genetic Moo, Nathaniel Stern

Beyond the Interface is an exhibition and series of events presented by
Furtherfield, where leading international contemporary artists explore the
technical devices that pervade our lives.

“The interface is the sense organ of the computer, whereby it becomes part
of human culture” - Søren Bro Pold1

How much of our life do we spend in front of screens? Typically young
adults in the UK spend more than a third of their waking lives watching TV
or using computers, smartphones and tablets.2 These glowing rectangles are
just one interface through which we contribute to the growing global
human-machine network.

Nowadays a multitude of sensors proliferate in these same devices along
with the chips and transmitters that are embedded in all consumer goods.
Our actions are tracked, our utterances and exchanges are monitored, and
our behaviours inform the design of future media, systems and products.
This is the cybernetic loop.

The interface is the boundary across which information is exchanged,
causing a transformation in one or both sides of that boundary. Between
individuals, corporations and states; beliefs and disciplines; components
of computer systems; or machines and living beings. Interfaces have always
been a site of control, hidden in plain view: symbolic, social or
technological. Seduced and habituated, we forget to question how we are
dominated and reprogrammed by the very facilities that are supposed to free
us as part of the digital revolution. Lori Emerson suggests this is an
“overwhelming push to disempower users/consumers with closed devices”.3

NOTES
[1] Interface Criticism, Aesthetics Beyond Buttons edited by Christian
Ulrik Andersen & Søren Bro Pold
[2] http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends
[3] 'Against the Frictionless Interface! An Interview with Lori Emerson'
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