“The interface is the sense organ of the computer, whereby it becomes part of human culture” – Søren Bro Pold

International contemporary artists explore the technical devices that pervade our lives in this exhibitions and events series presented by Furtherfield. With artists: Zach Blas, Branger_Briz, Mez Breeze, Heath Bunting, Jennifer Chan, Francesca da Rimini, Genetic Moo, Nathaniel Stern.

How much of our life do we spend in front of screens? Typically young adults in the UK spend more than a third of their waking lives watching TV or using computers, smartphones and tablets.2 These glowing rectangles are just one interface through which we contribute to the growing global human-machine network.

Nowadays a multitude of sensors proliferate in these same devices along with the chips and transmitters that are embedded in all consumer goods. Our actions are tracked, our utterances and exchanges are monitored, and our behaviours inform the design of future media, systems and products. This is the cybernetic loop.

The interface is the boundary across which information is exchanged, causing a transformation in one or both sides of that boundary. Between individuals, corporations and states; beliefs and disciplines; components of computer systems; or machines and living beings. Interfaces have always been a site of control, hidden in plain view: symbolic, social or technological. Seduced and habituated, we forget to question how we are dominated and reprogrammed by the very facilities that are supposed to free us as part of the digital revolution. Lori Emerson suggests this is an “overwhelming push to disempower users/consumers with closed devices”.3

More information is available here:
Exhibition details and essays on Furtherfield.org
On Flickr
On Vimeo

NOTES
[1] Interface Criticism, Aesthetics Beyond Buttons edited by Christian Ulrik Andersen & Søren Bro Pold
[2] http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends
[3] ‘Against the Frictionless Interface! An Interview with Lori Emerson’
[4] http://nathanielstern.com/art/tag/compressionism/
[5] https://deaddrops.com/

Venue: Furtherfield Gallery
Date: 25 April – 21 June 2015,

Beyond The Interface – London is a remix of an exhibition co-curated by Furtherfield with Julian Stadon for ISMAR 2014, the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, that took place in Munich in September 2014.