Manifestations festival, Art, Tech & Fun! For the fifth year in a row, Manifestations shows artists who, in a funny, spectacular or controversial way, examine the (mis)matches between people and technology and ask how technology can contribute to a sweeter, more humane world.

The festival takes place 17 – 25 October, of course corona-proof in a new, safe location at the hotspot Sectie-C and is expanding with an online part. The theme of this year’s edition: Monsters!

Over 50 works by mostly young, recently graduated artists will be shown, putting the exciting interaction between people and technology in a different light. Manifestations is the largest Art & Tech event during Dutch Design Week. Visit our website for the full range and program of kids workshops, lectures and meet-ups. We offer tours and VIP tours in English, Dutch, French and Arabic; contact us for more info!
Visit Manifestations.nl

What can you expect? Robots, E-fashion, female Muslim racing driver, lonely swimming pools, baby clothes for mothers with smart phone addiction, a wearable bullshit lie detector, post apocalyptic videos, emotion monsters … Eindhoven as a city in the arms trade, e-Girls and Gaming Girls, Terror of Beauty, the most beautiful and coolest Instagram filters you can try out live, Sansar and Second Life, Drones and Haute Couture, Digital Brain Scan … And discover more about yourself, solutions for security & connectedness in the public space … and more.

In 2020 Manifestations will again consist of Art, Technology and Fun, explained by ‘monsters’… We need Fun in a world where misunderstanding and fear of the other dominates.

A monster is mostly seen as a terrifying creature: extraordinary, ugly and BIG. But a monster can also be sweet and human like the Cookie Monster. By organizing the exhibition around the theme of monsters, we give people a light-hearted insight into what is currently going on.

MONSTERS – Free the Byte!
We often see ourselves as the good guy. A monster, that’s the other: the stranger, the eccentric, the one we’re afraid of. But it is not always the other person we should fear. Do we look critically at ourselves? How authentic are we really in a digital world, where powerful tech giants turn us into click cattle and in which our (prejudices) are only confirmed in the (online) media we use? Aren’t we turning into zombies ourselves?

Maybe it’s time to see monsters with different eyes. Then we may see that they are more human and nicer than we thought. And that they want to hold up a mirror to us. About how we deal with the stories we are told and about the (un) intended consequences of technology in our lives.

From four monstrous perspectives, Manifestations puts the interaction between people and technology in a surprising light, provides insight into the various dilemmas that technical developments entail and shows the sweet and social developments. The four perspectives are:
Prejudices – Monsterization (polarization and propaganda)
Consumer Zombies (slaves and parasites)
Beauty & the Beast (beauty and conformism)
Future Monster (tech & ethics)
Be sure to follow Manifestations on Facebook or Instagram to be the first to know when the registrations are open for the physical event, and how to join at the online for livestreams and a trip in the virtual world. Note, you can also add Manifestations to your favorites at the program on DDW.nl.

Prejudices – Monsterization (polarization and propaganda)
We like to tell each other stories, preferably of the type of fairy tale in which the good guys beat monsters and then live happily ever after. But what happens if we start to believe in fairy tales? When media, algorithms and propaganda machines tell us stories, designate “the other” as a villain and make us afraid of this other?

What can we do about this polarization in which the other is seen as a “monster” and no longer as a human? Can we resist this propaganda? Is it possible to reduce the aversion to the other, nuance the stories, discover the Cookie Monster in the other?
The works selected under this theme reveal our prejudices making visitors think about who they see as a monster and whether that is correct.

#terrorist #war-on-terror #newcomers #polarization #racism #confirm prejudice #propaganda

Consumer Zombies (slaves and parasites)
Is man himself a zombie, a mindless consumer, who can be manipulated by powerful marketing machines? With increasingly advanced techniques, large companies are linking data to the latest knowledge about the human brain. They know how to divert our attention, make us click and tempt us to keep buying.

To what extent are we able to withstand this? How can we stop our addiction to shopping, for more, better and newer? How do we ensure that we no longer throw away so much and choose other habits: more sustainable, closer to nature and truer to ourselves? The works within this theme confront visitors with their own behavior that does not always correspond to their own principles.

nature #slave #sustainable #biology #consumers #data slaves #kafka #disposable culture versus sustainable. #wearemonsters #marketing machines #life after coronavirus

Beauty & the Beast (beauty and conformism)
Throughout history, beauty stands for the good, and ugliness for the bad. But what is beautiful? Beauty ideals are culturally determined and are changeable. However, in our globalized world, beauty is becoming increasingly uniform.

Ines Alpha – Why just wear a warm sweater on Instagram, Jitsi or Zoom, if you can also make your face a flower or butterfly?
In this monocultural world, Instagram and YouTube in particular determine what is beautiful, how to look and what to wear. Is being different still accepted in a world where everything is immediately captured, is Googleable? Are you an instant monster if you’re eccentric and don’t meet the standard? The artists within this theme question the concept of beauty, and the influences of artificial beauty. Visitors can play with making their own appearance more beautiful or monstrous

#Instagram #botox #perfectionism #performance #nomakeup #vulnerability #conformation (authenticity = sample) #show. #AestheticsWithoutEthicsAreCosmetics #PeTA https://youtu.be/ayImIgdgLEI

Future Monster (tech & ethics)
What do we learn in the 21st century from the famous story in which Dr. Frankenstein creates a living being that turns into an evil monster over time? To what extent do the Dr. Frankensteins of this world have enough responsibility for their actions? For example, does Facebook sufficiently accept the consequences of its own creation (think of the manipulation of the elections in the US or the live film streaming of terrorist actions)?

It’s not the monster, but the Dr. Frankensteins of today that we must critically question. And ask the question, how do we want technology to develop? What role should it play in society? More human? How do we do that? Can art and technology teach us to understand each other better? The works within this theme show the tension that exists in technology: the contribution to progress and to making a profit.

#utopia #profit-based technology #cookiemonster #dystopia #1984 #freedom #choices-in-technology-that-we-make-now # how-or-alternative-futures #robotic-world and we ourselves are engaged in art, science and literature? #softer technology #1984: homogeneity vs diversity (samples). #polarize versus nuance. #malleable society

Location: Sectie-C
15 t/m 27 October, daily from 11:00 to 19:00
Accessible for wheelchairs: ground floor. Kids program.

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Ultrashort:
The Manifestations festival at DDW 15-25 Oct in Eindhoven, is dedicated to showing the more human side of technology.
Curator Viola van Alphen has selected works by over fifty young artists and recent graduates that aim to shine a powerful light on the exciting interaction between human beings and technology.
The festival will touch on themes as wide-ranging and current as geopolitical superpowers, body enhancements, robots, fear, hope, mass media, e-Fashion and the Macho versus the feminine. Participants include ines.alpha, Maartje Dijkstra, Sensoree and many young talents of Dutch art academies 2020.  https://mailchi.mp/d0c5836a5df6/manifestations-2020monsters-6456272

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