DESKTOPIA
is a multi-faceted project
DESKTOPIA
is a transmedia-survey-to-come,
growing along with this brand new blog
DESKTOPIA
is both a work-in-progress
and an ongoing storytelling experiment
[recently hosted & reviewed into INC’s “Tactical Visual Culture” branch]
DESKTOPIA in an unsettled exploration of scattered utopian & dystopian scenarios associated with (or accidentally emanating from) any potential graphical user interface – be it new, obsolete, freshly adopted, vintage, unexpected or underestimated, long forgotten or yet to be implemented
D E S K T O P I A
[sometimes intentionally spaced like this, so that it was quite difficult to search and locate related events without being already some sort of “initiate”] has been a series of both offline and online happenings – where I was inviting participants to play around with their very personal devices / desktops / GUIs, but could occasionally (and pretty easily) be reverse-engineered in order to become a physical or virtual performance of mine – where I invite the audience to vicariously play around with my own peculiar [or staged?] laptop landscape
more than anything else, DESKTOPIA is probably an obsession
certainly mine, increasingly yours – since, as you probably noticed, the main impact of covid19 on daily activities has been a reinforced digitization of interactions, mainly obtained *** and that’s the crucial point here *** via a politely induced detachment from the seemingly unstoppable lineage of ever-changing ‘n’ constantly-updating shiny smartphones (suddenly perceived as unstable, unprofessional, anyhow small, monotasking and difficult-to-manage – especially when it comes to video-meeting and work-from-home options), back[ing off] to the good old dusty ‘n’ humble desktop ””’computerZ””’ (mainly fixed – even in the case of laptops, definitely bigger, panoramic, multi-tasking, safer and more manageable for endless [ex]stream-ing sessions..)
– – – – – – – –
DESKT/OPIUM 2020™, maybe?
+++ r e a d +++
the narco[p]tic bond of ultrafast wifi,
leading to stultifying eyeball/screen symbiosis
(no matter if the content is work or leisure, entertainment or shopping, lonely cybersex or solitary masturbation, apprehensive corona-stats’ evaluation or black friday cumulative plans, encyclopedic enlightenment or blatant gossip..)
or simply DESKT/OTIUM 2.0-2.0 aka (2.0)² ?
+++ r e a d +++
domesticated post-capitalism calls to action
anything/anyone is – or appears to be – doubled,
when not directly multiplied and/or fragmented
while sinking into the proverbial tuberizing couch / easy-chair / gaming throne, we’re not only strongly encouraged to switch (for example) from active groceries to mediated ones – but we contextually need to choose between a plethora of (sometimes very similar, although equipped with differently captivating design & functionalities) dedicated apps / services / routines; all of that after a safety reviews’ skimming, the creation of a personal account, the usual last minute doubts about the best payment option, etc.
additionally: forget veteran prosumers (already accustomed to generate and publish variegated online content since the late ’90s) as well as those way-too-easily-discredited avid social media users (widespreading after 2005, nowadays almost enzymatically posting / sharing / commenting or directly faking part of their lives to calibrate one or more digital twin profiles)
at this very pandemic moment
almost e v e r y b o d y ( & s o u l )
is concurrently pushed
to produce ‘n’ disseminate
some form of remote, mostly visual
extension of his/her routinary acts
A N Y W A Y
→ in the form of either a disembodied document (be it a series of slides to compensate for the impossibility of talking in presence, an interactive visual menu for a temporarily closed restaurant, a grandma hardly-obtained screenshot to tentatively show her geeky grandson living in the other hemisphere what the hell is happening into that devilish – and too-big-to-handle – gizmo) or a talking-head/torso, tv-flavoured video recording (synchronous or not, variously ungrammatical on a cinematic scale – ranging from basic team conferences or meeting participation to online teaching/learning, from job interviews or exams [tragicomically buffering precisely at apical moments] to the never really took off [..until now!] goofily rewarding ritual of family, lovers’ or friendly video-calls)
– – – – – – – –
skill/fully
UPloading during lockDOWN
(or LOCKdownLOADing old ‘n’ new skills)
Antonello da Messina – “St Jerome in his study” [with a post-it?]
with the corona-coated winter approaching – and a reinforcing threat of some gloomy, insulated, monadic Xmas ahead – at least we [me, for sure!] could be indulging in some deep & insightful desktopian research: traditional-GUI-related nuances, features, serendipities and casualties are indeed bound to pop-up at any corner
→ from the possibility to rediscover a long forgotten intense laptop activity after years of smartphone happy-go-lucky self-confinement (ah, folders.. uh, how many files all around, fortunately there’s a trash bin over there, too!), to the adventure of reactivating and pimping up a proper desktop computer left abondoned, to the sheer necessity of completely rethinking a business or a scholarly activity around a newly organized set of office-oriented devices, to the ultimate ecosystemical strategy of incorporating small, medium and big ancestral devices into one hybrid multi-screen apparatus (whose buzzwordy “second screen” would then be shifting/rotating according to the moment and specific actions required by the average quarantineDay)
\\\ in short ///
COVIDeo frame_work
++ winter collection ++
d e s k [hetero] t o p i a
as a conglomerated space, combining
* interior & exterior decors
** the sum of our multi-tasking activity
*** the infinitely intricated interconnected-computer-scape
we’re all inserted into
d e s k [ethe/real] t o p i a
as an entangled time-frame, remixing
* internal & external daily habits
** the sum of our split-second decisions
*** the vastly unpredictable intertwined-mind-scape
we’re all (willingly or not) contributing to
– – – stay tuned / more to come – – –