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13 Sep 2023
Last week, Lab4Living PhD student Marika Grasso ran a sold-out workshop ‘somagrid – Neuro Interactive Installation’ in collaboration with Erika Mondria at the 2023 Ars Eletronica Festival in Linz, Austria. Later this month, her ‘Handy’ exhibition will consider our rapport with smartphones. Both events relate to and inform Marika’s PhD research at Lab4Living, Touchscreen Matter.
somagrid workshop – Ars Electronic Festival, Linz, Sep 2023
Are technologies able to reveal more about your “true face” than you are yourself?
The concept of somagrid aims to discuss the output of digital analytic grids analysing body signals within the context of “cloud reliability”, “biometric data capturing”, and “AI-based technologies”. Although sensors can be helpful tools for humans, the world is littered with digital sensors rangingfrom motion tracking in urban space to personal devices which capture vital parameters such as heart rate, pedometers or cerebral currents.
How does the everyday use of these technologies affect body and mind? Can the body’s perception shrink due to the constant use of sensors? Do people lose their sense of interconnectedness and thus their sense of their own veracity?
somagrid invited participants to wear a brainwave interface while exploring the neuroaesthetics of textiles and experiencing tactile technologies.
Neuro-Concept and project development, Neuro-interac-tive Performance: Erika Mondria (AT) WS-Performance, neuroaesthetics of textiles and tactile technology: Marika Jasmine Grasso (IT) Microprocessor Programming: Elena Falomo (IT).
Related news >> Marika Grasso has started her 3-month Digital Humanship fellowship at Institute for Human Sciences (IWM)
Handy exhibition – Yorkshire Art Space, Sep 2023
Marika’s exhibition new ‘Handy’ takes place at Yorkshire Art Space from 23 – 27 Sep 2023. Taking the German term for a smartphone, Handy considers our rapport with technology, particularly smartphones.
What are you touching now?
\\\
Keyboard or Touchscreen?
What is touched when we encounter touchscreens?
This exhibition explores how the iPhone metamorphoses into a reflective conduit of human conduct. Our relationship with technology, particularly smartphones, resonates through the entirety of our senses and bodies. The manner of carriage, grip, and even the specific regions of skin contact exert influence. Embedded within the concept of Screen Time lies a comprehension of fragmented and repeated periods of attention as a performative touch on the sleek glass surface.
‘Handy’ denotes the handheld device that has become an integral part of our daily lives. It accompanied Marika between Sheffield and Vienna, the German word denotes its being perpetually accessible, ready to be grasped at any given moment.
Location: Yorkshire Art Space Terrace, Persistence Works, 21 Brown St, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield S1 2BS
Date: 23 – 27 Sep 2023
Book your free ticked at Eventbrite
Related project >> Marika Grasso PhD Studentship: Touchscreen Matter