Urban Hosts @ Studio Weise7: End of Year Sweep

Carve out space for end of year digital radmin.

Carve out space for end of year digital radmin.

Enter the New Year with a lighter digital self!

Join Urban Hosts + Studio Weise7 for a programme includes afternoon of digital decluttering and Inbox maintenance, followed by conversations, with artists, critical engineers, and designers working across web archiving, digital repair, revival, and maintenance practices. Closing with festive drinks.

Agenda:

14.00-18.00: Collective digital radmin, with a focus on Inbox maintenance & management. Join Teresa Dillon & Danja Vasliev for an afternoon of digital decluttering. Sweep through your Inbox, sort files and share approaches to digital mail maintenance.

19.00-20.30: Conversations with Bengt Sjölén and Arkadiy Kukarkin, moderated by Teresa Dillon on digital maintenance and preservation with a focus on reverse engineering and the documentation of undocumented electronics, and the Internet Archive's approach ensure the visible web is preserved and accessible.

20.30: Studio Season Drinks

Biographies:

Arkadiy Kukarkin: Multidisciplinary practitioner, Arkadiy Kukarkin interests lie in the relationship between creative labour and reward, the nature of value, and the design of systems that support expression without compromising intent. He describes his artistic practice as eclectic, spanning algorithmic video, food science, and web maintenance. He currently works as a developer at the Internet Archive - a project, which has been preserving the visible internet since 1996. Arkadiy will share insights from his work at the archive, with a focus on decentralised and peer-to-peer technologies.

Bengt Sjölén:An independent software and hardware designer, hacker, and artist, Bengt Sjolen roots are in the Atari demo scene. With his work following many different threads, spanning subjects such as biology, software radio, electromagnetic fields and artificial intelligences. Collaborating with several artists, studios and networks, includingWeise7,HackteriaandCritical Engineering Working Group, Bengt discusses his research on reverse engineering the Synclavier 2 synthesiser. Released in the 1980s the Synclavier 1 and 2, were highly influential in shaping electronic music, as we know it today.

Danja Vasliev: Artist and critical engineer, Danja Vasiliev's work examines systems and networks through anti-disciplinary experimentation with hardware and software. Working under the banner of Critical Engineering and Studio Weise7, he creates artistic interventions, develops exhibitions and leads public workshops on topics addressing network insecurity, software and operating system modification, hardware re-engineering, digital forensics, and related technology practices. Co-author of The Critical Engineering Manifesto (2011), he currently holds the post of Professor of Emerging Media in Art and Design at the Merz Akademie – Hochschule für Gestaltung, Kunst und Medien, Stuttgart. Drawing on his experience as a system administrator and web developer, Danja co-leads with Dillon, the opening session on collective digital radmin, sharing his tips for inbox management and digital maintenance.

Teresa Dillon: is an artist, designer and researcher. For over two decades, her work focuses on techno-civic relations, infrastructures, governance, and the influence of contemporary media culture on patterns of living. This has lead to a focus on repair and maintenance cultures, digitally augmented conversational formats, sonic and surveillance histories, and ritual practices in post-human law. Since 2013, she has directed Urban Hosts and currently is Professor of Art, Media and Spatial Practice at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. Teresa will co-lead the collective digital radmin session and moderate the conversations, connecting both to wider discussions on the politics of care, repair and maintenance.