It was a Friday. A sickle shaped moon dissipated beyond the horizon. As the sun rose, bleeding orange hues into dawn, the internet was birthed. It first appeared in the public domain on the 30th of April 1993. In its infancy of dial-up lines and teething connections, it brought with it the democratization of information.
The platform and global network has since exploded. The contemporary state of the ‘Post-Internet’ condition refers to a saturation of this digitized space. What was novel in the nineties is now teetering on banality.
Daniel Rautenbach – a recent graduate from the University of Cape Town’s honours curatorial programme describes the space as “intangible” with a set of “complex interweaving connections”. His project and thesis centers around the intersection of digital space and curatorship.
“Conflux of Parallels explores the ways in which the Virtual and the Real concurrently reflect each other”. In a digital age, the border between online/offline space is becoming increasingly blurred. The conceptual framework for the project stemmed from the writing of Hito Steyerl – articulating intersections of social politics through digitization – and Actor Network Theory drawing on sociological concepts of interconnectivity.
“While the exhibition makes use of virtual reality, Conflux of Parallels is not inherently about virtual reality technology, it is rather about our virtual reality: how our lives are influenced by the digital world and furthermore how this digital realm is used by others in manifesting power.” The role of the curator in this instance is to create and tailor the visual experience of the viewer – constructing a visual argument.
This is also achieved through manipulating modes and conventions of display. “Particular viewing environments can dramatically alter the interpretation of the artworks.” In this way, the curator may act as a kind of co-author, working in collaboration with the artist. Daniel describes how, “as a curator, I find it is crucial for work that critiques online spaces to be accessible to the people who access these online spaces”
Often the white cube is depicted as a ‘neutral’ and accessible space, this fallacy is explored in Conflux of Parallels. It serves as a platform to introduce digital work into the space – however, articulated as a fully immersive experience. It further subverts the system by disseminating the artworks to, “non-gallery goers”. In this sense mirroring the nature of the democratized internet.
Most of the artworks selected in Daniel’s show are available online – offering an alternative viewing space and experience. Both of which exist in the public domain. “Virtual reality is thus used in the exhibition as a collaborative curating tool. This is particularly exemplified by the two digital installations curated within their respective virtual environments: Ghost Raid (2011) a music video produced by Alex Gjovic for Fatima al Qadiri, and the collection of collage images by Szonja Szendi.”
Digital environments were constructed by means of Unity 3D modelling software. The Cape Town based studio, Renderheads, facilitated the process. Viewers donned a Virtual Reality headset to view the installations. “The use of virtual reality thus functions as a form of hyper-curation where instead of curating elements of the existing, localised gallery, the viewing experience is transported to a completely new environment. Using 3D modelling software, the creation of a virtual environment is almost limitless in comparison to the specific space of a white cube gallery.”
Conflux of Parallels simultaneously uses and critiques the internet as platform. In the accompanying catalogue, Daniel states that: “Since algorithms learn from the web users’ activity and only 18% of the African continent has Internet penetration in comparison to USA’s 88,5% or the UK’s 92,6% it can be seen how online content is driven with a Western perspective”. Despite the façade of free-flowing knowledge production throughout global networks, an underlying Eurocentric agenda is at play – controlling symbolic value and cultural currency.
“If our physiological data and vernacular existence become further commodities of state and military power, we can only hope we are granted a sense of control and freedom to still mobilise our physical bodies. Our capitalist desires will soon need to be matched with a true understanding of customer rights, privacy policies and knowledge of how our engagements in the virtual contributes to power in the real. Since soon enough we will speak out only to realise we ourselves are content being moderated.” Self-reflectivity and critical analysis of the consumption of media is crucial in undermining Western propagandist motives.
View Conflux of Parallels catalogue here.
