Week 109_WTF Is Sinofuturism?
A screening, a talk, a reading and a set surrounding sinofuturism.
Sinofuturism became popularized by simulation artist Lawrence Lek and his homonymous short film in which he proposes 7 key concepts associated with China and automation; computing, copying, gaming, studying, addiction, labor, and gambling. We explore this term as a reality as we host a screening, a talk, and a DJ set.
Following the screening of Sinofuturism, the ethnographer Gabriele De Seta, currently based in Singapore, will join performance artist K Roseland and filmmaker Eduardo Makoszay to discuss the ideas exposed in the film in relation to their practices and experiences with automation, cyber-labour and economics of shitposting. Alongside a sound environment by Sinusoidal Deixis.
Afterwards, David Sánchez will deconstruct-reconstruct sounds coming from the emerging Shanghai music scene via Shanghai Community Radio.
About the speakers
K Roseland
Founder of Shanghai Community Radio and co-founder of Basement6 Collective.
Her work has been exhibited in spaces such as the virtual gallery w 文化馆 WenHuaGuan. Recently, she gave a performance talk at OCAT Museum Shanghai and performed at Yuz Museum and Club ALL Shanghai.
Roseland has published her research on the Chinese internet and was selected as a resident of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel. Simultaneously, she has done curatorial work for //arthubasia.org
Gabriele de Seta
Gabriele holds a PhD in Sociology by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.
His academic work focuses on digital media practices and vernacular creativity of Internet users in contemporary China. Gabriele’s ongoing research projects, situated at the intersection of anthropology, media and cultural studies, cover topics ranging from experimental music scenes and urban life in East Asia to new media aesthetics and digital folklore on Chinese online platforms.
De Seta has covered topics such as trolling, online slang, selfies, memes, incivility and nostalgia. He attempts to bridge academic research & art practice by collaborating with artists and curators on artworks and exhibitions, for example with Katy Roseland and Wang Rou about transactional performativity online.
Moderator: Eduardo Makoszay Mayén
Independent filmmaker and researcher. His films have been screened at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Sitges Film Festival and 67 gallery in NY.
Makoszay is currently enrolled in the Transdisciplinary Research and Practice program of The New Centre and has been part of the Mutianyu Schoolhouse residency in China and Sím residency in Iceland.
Live sound: Sinusoidal Deixis & David Sánchez
Performance by Ángela Cuahutle
Originally incepted by the techofeminist collective YGRG, this performance will involve the audience in a group reading of Folding Beijing by the chinese science fiction writer Hao Jingfang. In this case by re appropriating an already composed performance the audience articulate themselves in this landscape and in this apparently decontextualized situation. .
Ángela Cuahutle is an independent curator based in Mexico City. Her curatorial practice focuses on the investigation, from the exhibition as well as its different supports and possibilities, of the configurations of subjectivity(ies). She has been interested in projects that often link the visual arts with literature and other media such as research and theoretical production. She holds a degree in Art History from the Universidad Iberoamericana (2003-2008) and she is in the process of obtaining a Master's degree in Curatorship from Goldsmiths Collegue University of London.
About the Organizers
María Torres
She is completing her PhD in Philosophical and Social Studies of Science and Technology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on the topic of forensic genetic technologies, citizen science, and technical civil disobedience. She holds a degree in New Media & Communication and Economics from UC3M and an MA in Visual Culture from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofìa. Her key research questions have remained constant throughout this multidisciplinary trajectory, and relate to the intersection of science, technology and contemporary art practices.
