Upsetting Settings presents graduation projects initiated by Alexander Roidl,
Alice Strete, Angeliki Diakrousi, Joca van der Horst, Natasha Berting, and Zalán
Szakács. The concept of this exhibition arises from the idea of the default
setting, a situation in which a specific mode of interaction is selected
automatically, pre-configured to work out of the box without the need to tinker
with its underlying apparatus. Every system comes with default settings
predefined by its creators, and most of the time, these settings remain
unchanged by us, the users of such systems. These defaults do not represent our
needs but are possibly the materialisation of biases from the system's makers,
from corporate or political interests, from a society at large. The projects
engage with the concept of default modes and propose interventions in their core
structure/source/root so as to start thinking collectively about better places
from which to begin. You are invited to become root users, active listeners,
smart speakers, intentional eaters, counter trolls, sensorial spectators!

UPSETTERS

Alexander Roidl

Poetic Software challenges the default mode of software as a tool where
functionality and productivity are predominant through an intervention that
involves software as a non-functional, emotional, and cultural object of
artistic practice.

Alice Strete

Is it time to eat, or is there no more time to eat? questions the default mode
of techno-solutionism through an intervention that subverts the culture of
reviews, peering through the lens of food to shed light onto an ideology built
on patterns of authoritativeness and bland lifestyle choices.

Angeliki Diakrousi

Let's Amplify Unspeakable Things challenges the default mode of authoritative
voices, that establish exclusive speech platforms, through an intervention that
creates a safe space for excluded voices to be explored, in situated meetings
and on an online audio archive.

Joca van der Horst

The Smart Speaker Theatre questions the default mode of smart speakers as
digital assistants, through an intervention that involves kidnapping a Google
Home and having it interrogated by a team of rogue speakers and by you, their
user.

Tash Berting

Instant Warnet confronts the default mode of who is included and who is excluded
in contemporary social media spaces through an intervention that uses play and
performance to turn the tables on networks of harassment online.

Zalán Szakács

Eigengrau challenges the default mode of rituals in the club space through an
intervention that involves a collective experience while creating a
transcendental oneness for body and soul through help of light, sound, and
space.

PROGRAMME

12/07 FRIDAY: OPENING & PRESENTATIONS

19:00 Welcome
19:15 Presentation by first years (15min)
19:30 2nd year student #1 (Joca) (10 mins, 5 min transition)
19:45 2nd year student #2 (Alex) (10 mins)

20:00 Break (45 mins)

20:45 2nd year student #3 (Natasha) (10 mins, 5 min transition)
21:00 2nd year student #4 (Alice) (10 mins, 5 min transition)
21:15 2nd year student #5 (Angeliki) (10 mins)

21:30 Break (40 mins)

22:10 Zalan performances presentation and performance as finale
22:40 Drinks with DJ Naam (Dennis de Bel): (Slash)
02:00 END

13/07 SATURDAY: WORKSHOPS & PERFORMANCES

10:00 Open doors
11:00-12:00 MEAL REPLACEMENTS 101 – Alice Strete
Location: UBIK
FREE screening/discussion, max 10 participants, no RSVP necessary

‘Is it time to eat, or is there no more time to eat’ is a desktop film inspired
by my research on meal replacements, the most prominent techno-solutionist
creation in terms of food. In this short gathering, we’ll be discussing the main
points raised in my video around these products’ alleged potential of solving
problems, as well as ponder upon their role within societies which value the
authoritative roles of tech innovators, and their potential to impact the way
humans live.

12:00-13:00 INSTANT WARNET WORKSHOP – Natasha Berting
Location: UBIK
FREE workshop, max 8 participants, no RSVP necessary

‘Instant Warnet’ is a live action, role-playing game which pokes and prods at
networks of harassment on social media. During this game session, players will
be invited to assume fictional identities on Instagram, and perform various
tactics to talk back to online toxicity. The aim of this collective performance
is to experiment with new responses to the many forms of trolling and overall
policing that minorities (especially women) so often have to deal with online.

13:00-14:00 AMPLIFY ANGRY VOICES – Angeliki Diakrousi
Location: Slash Gallery and surrounding area
FREE workshop, max 10 participants, no RSVP necessary

This workshop will be about channeling our gendered ‘angry’ voices in public
space. It will take the form of a short play, based on an initial discussion
about personal experiences from moments of unspoken angry thoughts. We will
capture them in sentences and use them as input for responses within an ‘angry’
dialogue. Our temporary act will be recorded and then played back, outside of
Slash gallery. This public moment will be a chance to listen and expose the
outcome of our collective process. The produced material will be included in an
online audio archive, with the potentiality of re-broadcast or use for future
workshops.

13:30-14:00 EIGENGRAU – Zalan Szakacs
Location: UBIK
FREE performance, no RSVP necessary

The audiovisual experience features a custom-made LED circle, that in the
timespan of 12 minutes takes the audience through a non linear time of five
mental states: Deep State, Anticipation State, Weird state, Higher State and
Relaxation State. This narrative is made visible through the pre-programmed
motion of blue light gradients, referring to the colour of screen light.
Eigengrau frames the negative space, and therefore it generates an illusion of
non-material space. The installation offers a suspension from the isolation and
digital saturation of contemporary society.

XWAT?

Upsetting settings results from a year of research done at the Experimental
Publishing (XPUB) master in Fine Art and Design program of the Piet Zwart
Institute. XPUB is a two-year course that prepares students to critically engage
with societal issues and social practices within the fast changing field of art,
design and cultural production. More specifically, XPUB focuses on the acts of
making things public and creating publics in the age of post-digital networks.
XPUB’s interests in publishing are therefore twofold: first, publishing as the
inquiry and participation into the technological frameworks, political context
and cultural processes through which things are made public; and second, how
these are, or can be, used to create publics.