metaphors

Eröffnung: 31.1.2013, 19.00 Uhr; Ausstellung bis 8.2.2013 nomadenetappe, Untere Donaulände 12, 4020 Linz

Interface Cultures Studierende laden zur Präsentation ihrer Arbeiten.

Öffnungszeiten: täglich 16.00 bis 20.00 Uhr

Eröffnungsrede: Claudia Mongini
Performances: Alberto Boem and Davide Bevilacqua
Kuratiert von Enrique Tomás.  
Veranstaltet von nomadenetappe (nomadenetappe.net) und Masterstudienrichtung Interface Cultures Master/ Kunstuniversität Linz

Teilnehmende KünstlerInnen:
Alberto Boem, Davide Bevilacqua, Alessio Chierico, Cesar Escudero, Chiara Esposito, Isidora Ficovic, Jorge Gálvez, Đejmi Had, Mihaela Kavdanska, Oliver Kellow, Veronika Krenn, Sopon Kulkijja, Maruska Polakova.

"It is the most common way of trying to cope with novelty: by means of metaphors and analogies we try to link the new to the old, the novel to the familiar. Under sufficiently slow and gradual change, it works reasonably well; in the case of a sharp discontinuity, however, the method breaks down: though we may glorify it with the name "common sense", our past experience is no longer relevant, the analogies become too shallow, and the metaphors become more misleading than illuminating. This is the situation that is characteristic for the "radical" novelty."
—E.W. Dijkstra, On the cruelty of really teaching computer science

It is often explained in Computer Science and Interface Design that a good method for introducing  new technologies is through the use of metaphors. Our text processors look like sophisticated but cold virtual typing machines; our computer desktops are organized in folders and subfolders with tabs; music production suites copy literally the physical image of classical synthesizers, etc. Our computers and programs are usually conceived with the objective to mimic our "real world".

But computers represent a radical novelty and only by identifying them as such can we understand all the "nonsense, the misconceptions and the mythology that surround them". As E.W. Dijkstra explains, "linking the novel with the familiar only can bring us to gradual changes where only very small incremental improvements are possible". It is a general impression that Software Engineers try to reduce the possibilities of confronting their users with new radical intellectual challenges. Accepting radical novelties is not a very popular task, because it requires openness and hard work. For the same reason, novelties are more often denied than admitted in our societies.

Videogames for bacteria, poetic ways of typing with keyboards, analogue social networks or visualizations of colliding human lifes are among many others, the contents of this exhibition called Metaphors. Thirteen emerging international artists studying at the Interface Culture Master of the Kunstuniversität Linz were commissioned to produce a new work for the spaces of nomadenetappe. The works will show an overview of individual interpreted destabilizations of industrial standards, challenging the audience to interact with the metaphors surrounding us in a new and fresh manner and with unexpected results.

Flyer.pdf