Artist Patrícia J. Reis in conversation with Shamsher Virk
Join us online for a conversation with Patrícia J. Reis, an installation artist based in Vienna whose practice encompasses different formats and media to examine our relationship with modern technology. Through an ongoing investigation that destabilizes the boundaries between science, technology, magic, and spiritual beliefs, she explores questions “How do we believe in machines?” and “How technology is shaping us bodily?” The talk kicks off Impact Art AT, a month-long, online creative exchange that utilizes community-driven digital and new media art projects to explore and address the social challenge — “In Search of Truth.” Using feminist hacking strategies as a methodological entry point, participants will work with Patrícia to unravel and augment the way we perceive truth. How can a “true conception of reality” be established contemporaneously, and how does it influence us as individuals and as a collective? Is our truth an individual perception or a common belief constructed by the masses? How does truth affect where we are and the way we care for each other (as humans and non-humans)? Ultimately, how can technology be an asset in the pursuit of truth, even in fictional scenarios? Impact Art AT will tackle these questions while teaching open-source tools to build machines that help us speculate about future truths and the process of truthmaking.
Credits
Impact Art AT (2021) is a public diplomacy initiative designed and implemented by ZERO1 and the Open Austria Art + Tech Lab, funded by The Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport, and produced in partnership with Ars Electronica.
Patrícia J. Reis is an installation artist based in Vienna whose practice encompasses different formats and media to examine our relationship with modern technology. Her practice destabilizes the boundaries between science, technology, magic, and spiritual beliefs. She is a board member of the collective Mz* Baltazar’s Lab, a feminist hackerspace. Patrícia is a university lecturer and holds a post-doc position at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Vienna.
Shamsher Virk is the executive director of ZERO1. He amplifies the impact of mission-driven organizations with strategic leadership, community engagement, communications, program development, and design. He has worked internationally on four continents, entering new communities with a sustained commitment to inclusive process, responsive adaptation, and shared leadership. Shamsher holds a BA in human ecology from College of the Atlantic.
