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Exhibition
Clusterduck’s newest project “Deep Fried Feels” is processing the trauma of information, language and identity loss.
How to elaborate and collaborate in a state where the loss of information is caused by the transmission of information itself? How to deal with the complex mediatic and technologic apparatus that surrounds us, from social media platforms to the cruel stack of privatized and unmanageable infrastructures? How to navigate the era of post post-truth, deep fakes and the alien weirdness of digital language and visual codes?
In their newest work “Deep Fried Feels”, the members of Clusterduck collective look at the present, future and past of online communication. The era of social platforms and hyper-sharing (2008-2018), in which images and memes were used to communicate precise and hyper-complex feelings from chat to chat, platform to platform, until colors and information were lost through compression. The new era that is already in our lives (2019 -), populated by nonhuman actor-networks overlapping one another, among multiplayers, metaverses, generative AIs and alien intelligences. Meanwhile, the cultural and aesthetic codes of the internet seem to have lost their healing and connective power, made of tribal and subcultural symbolism, placing themselves on the event horizon, scattered and inert. Finally, the era that we have long left behind, but to which we somehow hope to return (1999-2008): the idealized 1.0 era of low-fi GIFs and dithering shades, forums and IRC chats, in which the collective dream of a conscious use of data and online dialogue seemed within grasp.
This collective mixed media project, originating from Clusterduck residency at Paul Thorel Foundation, is structured in several stages, each seeking out dialogue with friendly platforms such as New Float and The Wrong Digital Biennale.
In each collaboration, a small piece of the project is released into the ether. And that is why four fried 3D creatures are now visiting New Float, presenting a WIP version of seven 2D works that are going to be shown at Gallerie d’Italia during 2024. These characters literally melt in front of us, stuck in the horrific expression of a transmission rendering gone wrong.
“Deep Fried Feels” is an act of recovery and restoration of complex “feels”, as feelings are called among internet subcultures, cores and still functioning networks. It is also an homage to “fried memes”, the memetic current born and raised on Black Twitter, which turned data loss – by means of image transmission – into abstract art.
The exhibition is curated by Manuel Rossner.
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About Clusterduck
Clusterduck was born in the attempt of unraveling the mess we are in. After 7 long and crazy years, Clusterduck is still here, trying to disentangle the complexity of an increasingly weird world. They create experiences in the digital world, but also love to touch grass & look at the sky. Developed in a spirit of mutual respect, openness, and cooperation, their projects and operations criticize the current creative industries’ set up, offering fun and relatable alternatives that aim to inspire the many.
Clusterduck is an interdisciplinary collective working in the fields of new media studies, design and transmedia, investigating processes and actors behind the creation of Internet-based content. Clusterduck is currently developing Meme Manifesto, a transmedia project that collectively explores the occult meanings and communicative potentials of memetic symbology. During the last 7 years Clusterduck also created the participative exhibitions #MEMEPROPAGANDA and #MEMERSFORFUTURE, investigating the role of memetics in post-truth times and in the global climate justice movement. Clusterduck’s works have been exhibited at Ars Electronica, Villa Arson Nice, The Influencers, Werkleitz Festival, Impakt Festival, re:publica, Arebyte, Greencube Gallery, Tentacular Festival, IFFR and Radical Networks, among others.
Gabriele Guarisco
Clusterduck’s 3D Modelling Collaborator Gabriele Guarisco is an art historian, researcher and teacher based in Italy.
His experiences in the fields of 3D design and photography have been accompanied by ongoing investigations of archives and contemporary visual cultures.
He collaborated with Clusterduck Collective for the article “The Anti-Archive” published in FOAM Magazine. For the Wrong Digital Biennale 2023, he supported the collective by creating 3D Meme Characters for a virtual environment.
Changelog
- Initial Preview Version Launch