Abstract

Full Paper. Session: Futures and Heritages / Meta interfaces and media spaces

Keywords: Digital art, interface criticism, media aesthetics, media spectacle, political protest

The interface belongs to a longer history of ’media spectacles’, mass organization, politics and aesthetics, but also presents a new organization of the masses. How does this play out in art and culture? And, what is political protest in light of the interface?

The article asks how political agency play out in contemporary uses of the interface. It, firstly, stipulates that the interface is a ‘spectacle’, belonging to a longer history of media spectacles, mass organization, politics and aesthetics. Secondly, that contemporary interfaces are meta-interfaces, depending on a new organization of the masses characterized by mass profiling. Finally, it analyses how this play out in examples from art and cultural practices, and speculates on what political protest and revolution is in light of the interface.

• Christian Ulrik Andersen is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark. He is Director of Digital Aesthetics Research Center (DARC), co-editor of A Peer-Reviewed Journal About, and previous Research Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies.
• Søren Bro Pold is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark. He publishes on media aesthetics – from the 19th century panorama to the interface in its different forms, e.g., on electronic literature, net art, software art, creative software, urban and mobile interfaces, activism, surveillance culture and digital culture.