DullTech™: Neoliberal hardware lulz

By Karina Zavidova & Anastasia Kubrak

DullTech™ is a hardware startup, dedicated to once and for all solve frustrations that contemporary artists encounter using technology. Mo more stress or drama in making a video installation for an exhibition or an art-fair; no more remote controls or expensive AVI professionals to hire. DullTech™ media player effortlessly loops and synch videos over multiple screens, for you. “It’s really that simple”.

And it would be that simple, if Dulltech™ itself wasn’t a performative artwork.

The DullTech team present their purposefully dull, technologically simplified product in a form of generic crowdfunding campaign. An unbearably long video stresses the urgency of solving the problem and lists thousands of arguments for purchasing the player immediately.

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Though disturbingly realistic, DullTech™ is a fictional project: it is both an analysis and a critical reflection on efficiency-oriented capitalist society. It raises questions on modes of factory production, market economy by fully deploying its methods and corporate visual language. DullTech™ actually produced their product with the help of Chinese factory workers. Their Kickstarter campaign actually got funded. The speculation became reality, and a critique of finance actually got fundraised.

This project embraces comparison between art and business, raising a question if it has become a norm that artistic work is valid only when appreciated in a capitalist environment. And while exploring the idea of “dull technology with self aware references”, DullTech is currently developing a new series of products that will make our lives even easier.

Thank you for your interest in DullTech™.

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