The idea of smart home, where one can adjust his or her dwelling with an instant voice commend or with a press of a button, sounded so very promising. And with the booming of domestic technologies, the idea has become an easily achievable reality with Internet of Things: Amazon echo, Philips Hue, Google Home, Samsung Smart Fridge, etc.
Yet one’s home used to be a safe harbor, a place of thorough familiarity and comfort. Today a large percentage of our home appliances are like enigma machines. Autonomously, they light up, beep and constantly they track the waves in the air, attempting to pinpoint a length and frequency that resemble “Siri/Alexa/Google/Turn off the light/Turn up the volume/Warm/Cold…”
For this Café des Sciences lecture, continuing the trend with digital art and technology discussions, we have invited the Head of Research and Creation at the Chronus Art Center Lab – Vytautas Jankauskas to present his fascination with domestic and home technologies.
“Somestic Media” is an installation comprised of three home appliances, an alarm clock, a TV set, and a radio. The trio are connected objects, purposely trapped within the boundaries of conventional media of the past century.
Each of them pulls, processes and displays specific data from a major social network. However, the three iconic devices are deprived of two-way interaction with the user, indispensable in the Internet age, due to their limited nature. These limits allow to isolate, amplify and expose the obscure and presumably frictionless communication processes, orchestrated by complex social media algorithms.
Event Rundown
18:00-18:30 Registration
18:30-18:35 Welcome Speech
by Dr. Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO, Swissnex in China
18:35-19:15 Presentation
by Vytautas Jankauskas, Head of Research and Creation at the Chronus Art Center Lab
19:15-19:35 Q&A Session
19:35-20:30 Networking Reception
Speaker
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Bio
Vytautas Jankauskas
Vytautas holds a BA in Media Art from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, including an exchange at the Royal Danish Design School, faculty of Interaction Design, and another MA in Media Design from HEAD — Genève. He is the co-founder of a project-based practice VJF with Jon Flint, part of Cached Collective that interrogates notions around data and privacy via tangible and immersive experiences, and a permanent resident at the Pervasive Media Studio since 2018. Vytautas’ work has been exhibited at the V&A, CCCB, Chroniques Biennale, Salone Internazionale del Mobile, ISEA, and Cité du Design St.Etienne, amongst others. He has been awarded the Core77 Speculative Concepts Runner-Up prize in 2016. Since May 2019, Vytautas is the Head of Research and Creation at the Chronus Art Center Lab, Shanghai.
Partners
Café des Sciences
Café des Sciences is a new format at Swissnex in China offering a monthly platform for Swiss Spotlight Scientists and Startups to present their projects and connect with the local community. The lectures will offer a casual setting in which speakers can present their work and engage with the attendees during a Q&A period. Audiences are welcomed to enjoy the networking reception with Swiss flavour after the talk. The lecture is scheduled to take place every third Thursday each month at Swissnex in China or our partner spaces.
