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Together with the curators of Solid Roof, Severe Weather, currently showing at WUK, Vienna, we developed an angular presentation format for the double screen media installation. Previously, the piece was shown as two opposite projections – both projections display a synchronised recording of the 3QR procedures, but the attentive observer will notice inexplicable room aberrations – the conferencing room behaves like soft architecture. The new presentation format is enhancing this moment of doubt and irritation in the visitor’s perception by bringing the screens closer together.
The exhibition will remain open until end of November – check the venue’s website for opening times. 

Installation view. Third Quarterly Report by Manu Luksch, WUK 2021

For the publication  Uncertain Archives. Critical Keywords for Big Data. MIT Press, publisher & editors chose a still from my video work Predictive Cities (2020) – I love it!
Here’s a link to my text contribution, Prediction, as pdf. It includes my text collage Alfiya – A Found Dystopia,  using excerpts from the report by Human Rights Watch, China’s Algorithms of Repression: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App (2019)

I have just come off a talk event that followed the screening of my film ALGO-RHYTHM as part of the Austrian Film Month 2021 in Manila. Two hours flew past in no time, thanks to a dynamic conversation hosted by journalist Vino Lucero the highly interesting local contributors: Timothy Salomon, legal and advocacy officer Buklaran, who told us about his study on the public perception of voting, like to many representing “to bring change”, and who is now working with indigenous peoples on issues around land rights; Atty. Mildred Ople of YouthLed, which runs a training programme to foster understanding of the workings of democracy, from positions and their responsibilities to the dangers and opportunities that open up with digital campaigning; Atty. Carlo Africa, Executive Director of  Hirayang Kabataan highlighted the need for informed voters with a good level of digital literacy to ensure a meaningful election process. That ALGO-RHYTHM might support the journey towards fairer elections in the Philippines even in the smallest way fills me with humble pride.

These questions and more accompany me on my journey into this space. My first observation is that the ‘attention economy’ seems to be one of the more important factors in the formation of pricing, hence an artist who is very social media savvy will gain higher prices than an artist whose work is based on in-depth concepts. However, the secondary market is set up in a way that is beneficial for artists when their work gets sold on. Here’s my page on Ethereum art platform KnownOrigin.

I’m delighted to start my new role as Resident Artist at Birkbeck’s School of Law!

Alexej von Jawlensky created Mit Roter Schwalbentapete – see below – in 1915. The proclamation of WWI forced him to leave Germany for Switzerland, where he painted this work, now part of the Forberg Collection at Albertina Wien. Our work on the collection’s audio guide narrated by Mathias Forberg continues to astonish me with fascinating details about the history and personal experience with the art works.

As a comment on the absurdly lowered bar in political campaigning Manu and Mukul staged an election campaign in VR space. The documentation video is now online here.

As the RL gathering of WISE 2020, a temporary cultural think tank, cannot take place in Beijing this summer, I have joint forces with the team to develop a ‘fantasy island’ room on Mozilla Hub that will host the meeting instead. If you’d like to participate in the associated event in London end of August 2020, get in touch, or join us through your VR goggles or browser!

The German-language educational DVD, which includes short film ALGO-RHYTHM (with German subtitles), is available at EZEF