Exhibition opening. Photo: Tanja Kanazir / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
Digital artist, programmer, author and educator Uroš Krčadinac will present his exhibition All-Aligned at the Filodrammatica Gallery (Korzo 28/1, Rijeka) from November 10 to 29, 2022.
After the opening – on Thursday, November 10 at 8 p.m. – the exhibition will be open for visitors every day except Sundays and holidays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. (contact us to arrange another time of your visit). Admission is free.
+++ Before the opening, Uroš Krčadinac will give an artist talk, starting at 6 p.m. in the large hall of Filodrammatica, in which he will present his project and talk about aesthetics and poetics, politics and ethics of modern technologies for machine learning and automatic content generation.
Source: krcadinac.com
Visualizing the fragmentary nature of our digital lives, the All-Aligned project ask: what is a society in which we, as users of digital systems, identify ourselves with automatically generated symbols, a society whose identities are driven by algorithms? What does the standard repertoire of national symbols, such as the flag, motto, coat of arms and anthem, represent today, at the time of the proliferation of digital capital, the accelerated doubling of memetic fronts and the general inflation of meaning?
The core of the project is a custom made random flag generator for infinite identity building, a software system based on applied artificial intelligence (AI), named Fractal Nations.
Ideas and concepts (pirate, Balkan, libertarian, ecological, dark, etc.) are being mapped onto graphic elements (colors, layouts, symbols, new shapes, etc.). By generating flags, the system also generates an infinite number of micro-identities, which multiply in a fractal manner, dividing themselves ad infinitum.
The exhibition will show various visual outputs from the described software system, primarily flags, which will be displayed as real, physical, cloth or silk flags, as prints on the gallery wall, and as part of an interactive site, exhibited in the gallery, which will allow visitors to generate their personal, individual – truly individualistic – symbolic identity on the spot (and for that exact moment in time, because the very next moment their own flag would look different).
How does a flag you would stand under look like? Generate and choose such a flag using the All-Aligned software generator of endlessly different flags and microidentites.
Choose your personal flag and email the SVG to the author until November 7. We will print it as a small paper flag and include it in the exhibition. Participation is free and open to everyone!
An example of a visual generated using the Fractal Nations software system, created by Uroš Krčadinec. The visual shows the fractal multiplication of identity symbols, together with the ghosts of symbols from previous historical evolutions.
Fractal Nations visualizes the fragmentary logic of social relations dominated by digital capital. AI algorithms produce endless amounts of media content, and the unneccesseriat, in despair of helplessness and loneliness, grasps for any symbols. Such (pseudo)random identifications create more and more useless fronts, which are not only unable to oppose real power structures, but only help these same algorithms to better recognize, cluster, monitor and ideologically sharpen people. This further emphasizes the uselessness of all these people – who need to be managed but cannot be made useful.
At the core lies the tension between the symbolic and the material. Philosopher Boris Buden says: “Identity is a bone they throw at you before they peel you to the bare skin.” In the digital society, this happens rapidly, with the accompanying hyperinflation of any symbols and narratives, and these flags become cheap and expendable like Internet memes. This kind of narrative schizophrenia is used as an effective social tactic, because as long as you are part of the financial power structures, it doesn’t matter what symbols you surround yourself with.
Instead of the Non-Aligned – All-Aligned.
An example of an experimental interface for an application that generates infinite flags based on given geographic, aesthetic, identity, ideological and other parameters. This application is part of the Fractal Nations software system, created by Uroš Krčadinec.
☛ Filodrammatica Gallery, Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
EXHIBITION OPENING:
Thursday, 10 November, at 8 p.m.
ARTIST TALK
Thursday, 10 November, at 6 p.m.
GALLERY WORKING HOURS:
MON-SAT from 4 to 8 p.m.
(closed on Sundays and public holidays)
The project was produced by The Students’ City Cultural Center (DKSG) in Belgrade, in the framework of the international artist-in-residence programme They: Live – student lives revealed through context-based art practices, supported by Creative Europe and the Serbian Ministry of Culture.
UROŠ KRČADINAC
