[spectre] Free WiFi/Gratis WLAN

[Brendan Howell]

Free WiFi/Gratis WLAN

// concept by Brendan Howell

EIGEN + ART Lab
Torstraße 220. 10115 Berlin

Participants: Renee Carmichael, Kathrin Günter, Katya Isaeva, Silvio
Lorusso, Johannes P. Osterhoff, Antonio Roberts, TeYosh und the
Scandinavian Institute of Computational Vandalism

Opening: 27. Oktober 2016, 17 – 21 Uhr ab 21 Uhr Wein und kleines
Abendbrot

Exhibition: 27. Oktober – 17. Dezember 2016

https://www.facebook.com/events/304398653280066/

If you invite an "internet" artist to contribute to an exhibition, can
you pay them in "likes"? When Bourdieu came up with his famous theory of
Cultural Capital, was he just referring to how many followers he had on
Instagram? Do people prefer to be told what to like? Is an endlessly
scrolling interface like a painting of an infinite supper?

On October 27, 2016 the EIGEN + ART Lab in Berlin Mitte opens the show
"Free WiFi/Gratis WLAN", conceived and assembled by Berlin-based artist
and reluctant engineer Brendan Howell. The gallery space has been
converted to resemble a typical cafe space (with the expected free WiFi)
for this exhibition of internet-based works. Participants include Renee
Carmichael, Kathrin Günter, Katya Isaeva, Silvio Lorusso, Johannes P.
Osterhoff, Antonio Roberts, TeYosh and the Scandinavian Institute of
Computational Vandalism. All of the artists are skeptical about the
conventional sale of their works but maybe they could accept
compensation as a particular number of likes, links, views, follows,
eyeballs or clicks on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and other social
networks.

While we don't actually have satisfying answers to most of the above
questions, if you want to see the show, you will need to come down to
the EIGEN + ART Lab with your laptop, tablet or smart-phone. You will
certainly be confronted with a few contemporary riddles but you also
might start to perceive parts of your everyday network-mediated life
differently. And despite the post-utopian gloom of today's internet
culture, there are a few artists who still seem to be having fun. There
will also be coffee and free (geographically limited) WiFi until the
show's end on December 17.


-- 
http://wintermute.org/brendan