Technologies increasingly enter our everyday life until they become undistinguishable from it. Some argue that ubiquitous technologies inevitably affect cultural environments, identities and social interactions.   

This second event of the Untitled initiative gathers two notorious guests who both explore the effects of technologies on societies and interactivity through artistic “experiments” and theoretical investigations.

Ju Row Farr is one of the leaders of the Blast Theory (1991), the internationally renowned artists’ group based in Brighton (UK). The group’s work explores interactivity and the social and political aspects of technology by using performance, installation, video, mobile and online technologies to ask questions about the ideologies present in the information that envelops us. One of their most important recent work is The Day of Figurines (2006). It is a massively multiplayer game for sms where you create a fictional character to question  personal identities and stimulate interactions in a parallel social world. The Blast Theory also took part to the latest edition of the Venice Biennale with the “Ulrike and Eamon Compliant”. This is a ambulatory work exploring subjectivity by inviting audiences to acquire a new identity and become interlocutors with the artists.

Rob van Kranenburg (Belgian) graduated cum laude in Literary Theory at Tilburg University (Nl). He was programmer of media education programmes, taught at various schools in the Netherlands (UvA, EMMA Interaction Design, Industrial Design) and worked at several Dutch cultural institutions.  Rob van Kranenburg  recently wrote the ‘The Internet of Things’ and co-organized the DIFR (a broad range of pro and anti RFID positions) network in the Netherlands. His book is a critique of ambient technology where he examines what impact RFID (radio frequency identification) will have on our cities and our wider society. In particular, he investigates what alternative network technologies could help safeguard our privacy and give power back to citizens.

Through two different approaches, they both examine the social and cultural impacts of disappearing technologies (e.g. RFID), smart environments (knowing where and who we are), pervasive games.

The Blast Theory group explores the interaction potential of networked technologies by proposing arts works based on the active participation of audiences through mobile devices. Rob identifies both opportunities and threats of networked media in terms of privacy and control on personal information by citizens. He looks for theories, concepts, scenarios and prototypes for this wireless world to socially and culturally empower larger groups of people.