Shu Lea Cheang & Jara Rocha
8 August 2011 – 31 August 2011
Cheang is a committed new-media artist specialising in net installation and performance since the mid-1990s. She was the first net-artist to be commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum New York for an art project: BRANDON (1998-1999), a one-year narrative web project. Her Locker Baby project, including Baby Play (2001, exhibited at NTT[ICC] Tokyo), Baby Love (2005, exhibited at Palais de Tokyo and toured the USA, Australia, Thailand and Norway) and Baby Work (2012), which uses a baby clone to negotiate human ME (Memory/Emotion) data. Her film I.K.U. was screened in commercial cinemas and was also well received in museums (screened at the Reina Sofia in 2001). Cheang is a visionary in sketching science fiction narratives for her artwork. Her interface design focuses on social, public and bodily interaction that goes beyond computer keyboards. She is also recognised in gender, technology and post-porn studies.
The UKI project was first developed at Hangar in 2009 with further viral game development at La Casa Encendida (Madrid) and Medialab Prado (Madrid).
http://www.u-k-i.co
Jara Rocha estudió Humanidades en la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (NL).
Ha colaborado en diversos proyectos dentro del ámbito del audiovisual, del arte contemporáneo, los new media, y la cultura libre como Documenta Madrid, la Colección Bergé, red LABtoLAB y Medialab-Prado, donde coordina el grupo de investigación Género y Tecnología. Además participa de forma activa en masterDIWO.org, un proyecto independiente de diseño de metodologías informales de aprendizaje autodirigido y colaborativo, que reflexiona sobre la práctica cultural y contextual de la mediación cultural.
En la actualidad desarrolla un proyecto de investigación en la Universidad Carlos III (en el marco del postgrado de Teoría y Crítica de la Cultura), que recoge su interés por las interfaces como espacios performativos de construcción de experiencia, y dispositivos de monitorización y gestión de la misma. En esta investigación trata de intercalar nociones de los software studies, los estudios culturales, las humanidades y la estética digital.
Project in residence
UKI (a viral game)
UKI, as a viral game, establishes an evil GENOM corporation that takes human bodies hostage and creates (after the net-crash) the BIONET. The BIONET reformats erythrocytes (red blood cells) as computer units to reprogram and generate ORGANISM (Organic Orgasm), which promises self-satisfying and self-contained orgasms that surpass the human body’s need for interaction. UKI, the virus, born outside the E-trashscape, leads the mission to infiltrate GENOM’s BIONET to stop the production of ORGANISM and reclaim the original human orgasm.
UKI is based on the video game REZ (Japan, 2001 for Dreamcast and PlayStation2). It takes place in 4 levels:
Level 1: infecting the public; Level 2: mobilisation of the virus; Level 3: entering Bionet; Level 4: collective orgasm -end of the endless game.
http://www.u-k-i.co/
Public presentation : 30.08.11 19h @ Platform Zero
