Page 335 - The Black Box Book

against genius, against the assertion of the creative individual. The claim
of the isolated performance is obviously ridiculous and funny, but powerful
institutions and influential people still hold on to the artificial and pathetic
construction of the super-individual – primarily for economic and social
reasons. The mismatch between The Next Biennial Should be Curated
by a Machine and overexcited artists, however, is the framing and the
haute couture web design. Charisma is fragile, shameful, and fearful and
communicates more emotions than the effective contents could carry,
through the reduction of color, the unobtrusive and ephemeral con-
struction of the parallel universes, and the instrumentation. And even if
the writing does not stand up to any objective and critical evaluation,
the overall picture (and sound) works. Apathy and despair do not overflow
into kitsch but show that material can represent a break in the digital art
landscape, extremely extravagant, relevant, and innovative, and will have
a lasting influence on the coming generation of artists.
Synthetic curating is proof that witchcraft trials cannot end well for
the individual. The ethical questions it contains call for clarification and
transparency. The individual’s overestimation of their own capabilities
becomes entrenched in all areas of life and as a consequence, synthetic
disasters continue to accumulate. Blind with open eyes to the doom.
The pluralistic credo of Rimbaud, Apollinaire, and Lautréamont: Poetry
must be made by all and not by one; an even more radical credo is added Figure 3: The Next Biennial Should be Curated
here: Our reality is imagined, developed, fed, curated, and subsequently by a Machine (2021). Commissioned by Whitney Museum
collectively hallucinated by all of us, humans, animals, and machines and of American Art New York and the Liverpool Biennial 2021.
Retrieved from
the new networked organisms that are us! This form of existence can never https://liverpoolbiennial2021.com/programme/ubermor-
find a hardened shape. This will not smoothly merge with the materialism gen-leonardo-impett-and-joasia-krysa-the-next-biennial-
-should-be-curated-by-a-machine-b-nscam
and static requirements of the art genre and establishment. In contrast
to that, in times when personality, innovation, and vibe are in demand,
The Next Biennial Should be Curated by a Machine should definitely not
be underestimated. These worlds introduce Nollywood to the elegant art fairy tales of the absolute individual, on radical negations of the collective
canon, merge egocentric conversations with police interrogations and and obsolete reflexes of faith, it failed miserably while causing widespread
mix formalized art criticism with the stylish and distinguished language and sustainable damage.
of music criticism. Even if one cannot uncompromisingly and uncon- However, we intend to affirmatively create critical and painful beau-
testingly award it the label "simply brilliant", it is nevertheless the most ty, and design sensual utopia as a counter-model to existing corporatist,
exciting release of the year and an important milestone of contemporary techno-fascist models of curation and representation (i.e. Google Search,
art. Contradictions are inherent and edges – in their varied meanings NSA [The National Security Agency], Venice Biennale). This succeeds
– become figures of the network society’s antinomy of connection and if we apply non-linear and non-spatial narratives, operate with ruptures
disconnection. An edge captures an irresolvable tension between inside and resistance, attack and embrace contradictions and test-fly futuristic
and outside, limit and porous membrane. And yes, sometimes everything affirmation strategies. By slightly inserting the concept of the future
just feels empty and useless. today, we establish a connection to utopian ideas while conducting
Should synthetic curating feel and look like synthetic curating? high-risk experiments via unregulated technology. To be clear, we embrace
Human editing, the human hand, and thinking in curatorial and in epileptic the contradiction of releasing machine curating machines as irresponsible
fits (occasions, exhibition, crises, sensations) convulsively try to insert and potentially fatal without government regulation.
the idea of the individual, the human, to add a relatable touch to products, Since our beginnings as professional artists, curators have been
events, fits, or processes. This longing awoke during Enlightenment, it was working with us in administrative functions adding arbitrary intellectual
implanted as ideology, but could never fulfill the promise of independence, frameworks (or vice versa). Within internationally renowned institutions,
self-reliance, and freedom. Based on fragile collective hallucinations, on curators increasingly positioned themselves as (meta-) artists. The produc-
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