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In a talk with an executive of a large (and evil, as those should be) social network a few years ago, who was in charge of its arts and culture department, I once stumbled upon an obvious, but spot-on delusion. Describing the interface of the social network, they mentioned casually, that it works precisely like a white cube gallery: neutral and welcoming any user to make with, in and out of it whatever they wish. Surely, the neutrality of a white cube space has been refuted and played around with for decades in academic writing, institutional and independent artistic practices. Web interfaces have also been theorised and critiqued as precisely the controlling, ideologically rich and opaque/covert, always inherently problematic environments set between the user and the algorithms. 

Still, as the hype around decentralised protocols made way for a bubbling market for tokenised digital objects, and platforms were developed to host this market, it was hard not to pick out their whitish, e-commy, functional and neutral design, inevitable for the goal of hosting streams of unsortable images, be it gifs™ or multilayered transmedia projects. Meanwhile, the very idea of the primacy of ownership through a unique contract, regarding a work of art (an object, or a *collectible*) leads back to practices in the history of conceptual art.

What dimension exactly has been stripped off of a modernist white cube in a Web3 interface (or has not — set aside, why rebuild it)? Hyperplatformisation introduced new types of maps of interactions between artists, producers, audiences, collectors etc., through regulatory mechanisms such as online social capital, randomised gatekeeping and pure speculation. Such irregular maps often create a non-navigable, exclusive space for economic and affective agents, once again with labour unseen, and profits centralised. 

These several (well-known) artistic practices have been looking into this for a while now, engaging with the media and market itself.

Inside the White Square

Already meta, but still modernist interfaces.

x | o 33

Agony (physical)

Covering its sight, 2021

OGRESS #95

Perception of Jezebel

bl0b 004

“The body is a patchwork, though the stitches might not show. (...) The borders are frayed and permeable. It's possible, and maybe preferable for the self to think of itself as a sort of practice rather than a thing, a proposition with variable terms, a mesh of relationships.”
Shelley Jackson


*Patchwork Girl* is the title of a cybertext written by Shelley Jackson in 1995. The story centers around a character made up of ever-changing body parts, challenging traditional notions of identity as fixed and singular. *Patchwork Girl* uses hyperlinks to create a fragmented narrative structure, allowing readers to explore multiple paths of experience through piecing together images, sentences, and blocks of texts. The use of collage as a narrative technique is prominent throughout the story, juxtaposing and blurring concepts of linearity, gender, and identity.


This collection presents works that use collage and assemblage techniques to portray recreated identities. In the realm of digital image production, where visuals can be easily altered and manipulated, the concept of authenticity becomes elusive. Instead, collage embraces the visible use of appropriated or manipulated images. New “collage” techniques use AI-powered image generators trained through machine learning that combine a multitude of images sourced from various image banks, raising concerns about copyright compliance.
Here the artworks reveal the intricate web of contributions, or “mesh of relationships,” that shape their structure. Glitchy, layered compositions make visible the involvement of the many individuals engaged in the production and circulation of images.


This eerie imagery conveys a sense of estranged self, perhaps because it hints at the ethical implications of AI in shaping and defining identity, and at the hidden labor that underlies image creation.

Patchwork Girl

No Adventure Land

Dance I

Horizon

Hold Me

∞III

'Awakening' by Wes Viz feat. The Anix

Larry Cove

{Specimen no. 5, Coelopidium leucopterus}

“To be something abnormal meant that you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you... and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them.”
Okorafor, Who Fears Death.

I am paying tribute to women and queer influencers, pioneers of sci-fi literature such as Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Leguin, and more recently Nnedi Okorafor and N. K. Jemisin. This Curator’s Choice is inspired by people who think outside the normative boxes of our world and explore the potential for societal changes through science fiction(s). Indeed, sci-fis is a genre that not only allows us to think of alternative worlds, other bodies, and different embodiments, it also is a means to address and criticize current political frameworks and socio-political contexts.

There’s a playfulness here in terms of perceiving Science Fiction as something uncanny, something we might find familiar and unknown at the same time.

Holly Herndon

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