Exhibition Title
all watched over by machines of tight embrace
Location
Lewisham Arthouse
Exhibiting Artists
Arna Beth
David Blandy
Dian and Lucy
Ece Tan
Inés Miño Izquierdo
Issi Nanabeyin
Event Programme
7:30 - Screening: Progress vs Regress by melanie bonajo
8:30 - Performance: bill daggs
9:15 - Mix: Smarterchild
10:00 - Performance: AZADI.mp3
all watched over by machines of tight embrace
Location
Lewisham Arthouse
Exhibiting Artists
Arna Beth
David Blandy
Dian and Lucy
Ece Tan
Inés Miño Izquierdo
Issi Nanabeyin
Event Programme
7:30 - Screening: Progress vs Regress by melanie bonajo
8:30 - Performance: bill daggs
9:15 - Mix: Smarterchild
10:00 - Performance: AZADI.mp3
In her seminal 1984 essay, ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’, Donna Haraway identifies the fallacy of technology as a neutral tool beholden to human mastery. She states: “we’re inside of what we make, and it’s inside of us. We’re living in a world of connections—and it matters which ones get made and unmade” (Haraway, 1985, p.149). With this insight, Haraway frames the nuanced, mutually constitutive relationship human subjects inhabit with the technology that sustains their daily lives. This revelation underscores that any technology materialised from a present sociopolitical context is ultimately steeped in the prejudices that characterise the day. Rather than simply a set of safeguards against impending futures, technological innovation reveals itself as a mirror, reflecting our contemporary context and the systems that uphold it.
This exhibition delves into the complex interplay between emerging technologies and human existence. Rather than setting up a bifurcated genealogy of nature vs technology–the roar of technological progress in one corner, and a floundering natural world in the other–the works in this show confront the challenges and opportunities presented by these innovations. They delve into the joys and the perils of technology’s ability to connect our lives across geographies, glimpse into our social systems, rethink the materiality of the world around us, and challenge what we consider to be recognisable life. In doing so, this show aims to spark conversations about our place within an ever evolving landscape.
Photos by Gabriel Cautain