Artist talk by Joana Moll
artist talk / presentation
About the event
Our so-called networked society has so far failed to bring the logic of interconnectedness into our lives. Citizens are becoming more machine-like and data-dependent, threatening the connection between humans and their natural habitats. Although most of our daily transactions are carried out through electronic devices, we know very little about the apparatus that facilitates such interactions, or in other words, the factory behind the interface. In this presentation, we discuss the interface as a well-engineered capitalist machine that disconnects users from the material complexity of global chains of commodity and data production – and also social reproduction – in order to maximise economic profit. It is therefore necessary to trace the connections that exist between things – as well as the workload involved in the basic maintenance of these connections – if the user is to fully understand the systems in which they operate, in order to balance and repair the profoundly asymmetrical distribution of agency, energy, labour, time, care and resources within these planetary networks.
About the Artist
Joana Moll is a Barcelona/Berlin based artist and researcher. Her work critically explores the way techno-capitalist narratives affect the alphabetization of machines, humans and ecosystems. Her main research topics include Internet materiality, surveillance, social profiling and interfaces. She has presented her work in renowned institutions, museums, universities and festivals around the world such as Venice Biennale, MAXXI, MMOMA, Laboral, CCCB, ZKM, Bozar, The Natural History Museum in Berlin, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Ars Electronica, HEK, Photographer’s Gallery, Korean Cultural Foundation Center, Chronus Art Center, New York University, Georgetown University, Rutgers University, University of Cambridge, Goldsmiths University of London, University of Illinois, Concordia University, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ETH Zürich, École d'Art d'Aix en Provence, British Computer Society, The New School, CPDP 2019, Transmediale, FILE and ISEA among many others. Her work has been featured extensively on international media including The New York Times, The Financial Times, Der Spiegel, National Geographic, Quartz, Wired, Vice, The New Inquiry, Netzpolitk, El Mundo, O’Globo, La Reppublica, Fast Company, CBC, NBC or MIT Press.
She is the co-founder of the Critical Interface Politics Research Group at HANGAR Barcelona and co-founder of The Institute for the Advancement of Popular Automatisms. She is currently a visiting lecturer at Universität Potsdam and Escola Elisava in Barcelona; an artistic researcher in residence at HGK FHNW in Basel, a research fellow at BBVA Foundation and a fellow at The Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin.