Coming to Terms with Sociotechnical Discrepancies

About

During the opening event there will be a durational performance by Sisters from Another Mister

To attend the event, please RSVP: 
via comingtoterms.eventbrite.co.uk
or email comm-lon-exhibition@ec.europa.eu

Our dependency on various technologies, which is being induced by the lifestyle in our capitalist societies, is an obvious fact. We provide a catalyst that supports the information economy, in which our produced data is being collected and reappropriated to influence political attitudes, circulate commerce and consumption. The paradox, however, is that even though we are aware of this dependency, we still allow it to happen. Moreover, technology is often the focal point of the current discourse and even an object of fetish, or a lens through which we imagine the future. Its effects on humans or our well-being become a secondary preoccupation, even though these apparatuses gain the reason only through flesh, corpus and actions led by mind. 

Whilst we teach machines our thinking, we learn to think as machines. In this cycle, not only the sociotechnical, but also social and individual norms and values are shaped, which become more structured and mechanic. We create an image of humanity, put ourselves and others within distinct frames of behaviour, which eventually might lead to reinforcement of racism, misogyny, forms of fascism and social stratification. This approach poisons our collective thinking, impacts the decision making that determines the trajectory of our society, and also creates internal disillusionment, especially if we fail to succeed in the role that we are being ascribed and accept to play in this system of capitalism.

The artworks by Glitchr (Laimonas Zakas), Robert Powell, Sisters from Another Mister (Milda Lembertaite and Amelia Prazak), Julijonas Urbonas and Benjamin Westoby are an investigation into the origins of our current thoughts and behaviour in relation to technology. The exhibition Coming to Terms with Sociotechnical Discrepancies becomes an occasion to slow down the acceleration of capitalism, to allow the space for introspective and extrospective reflection on its affective impulses, until the next moment when we are inevitably drawn back into it.

Curated by Milda Batakyte

Partners: 
Lithuanian Culture Institute
Lithuanian Embassy to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland