XOXOXOLOLOLOL (2016)

Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts.
Marshall McLuhan

XOXOXOLOLOLOL is a project of projects; an exploration into the possibilities of post-internet connection, communication and affection.

It starts with the recognition of the internet as an experiment that we conduct on ourselves, with all of its (commercial, personal, political) ramifications and (cultural, psychological, economic) consequences, and the need for other networks, interfaces, organisms and agential systems that take into account the desires created by our present forms of communication.

Physically, it began as a kind of mail art game: participants received a mouth-shaped stamp along with an inkpad and “instructions” for how to play. The stamps were used in a variety of ways.

Atibaia

When invited to show the project, XOXOXOLOLOLOL became an exhibition inside an exhibition. In order to make visible the idea of a distributed affection network, I invited everyone who had been a part of the project so far to contribute to the installation.

It ended up becoming a space that explored the way we transfer, translate and transform “things” (objects, ideas, feelings) over networks, and in the process blur the distinctions and relationships between actor/network, node/link, object/subject.

The exhibition was made up of a couple of video and photography pieces, some of the objects from the workshop and the original mail art game, as well as documentation for the process.

Participants

This would not have been possible without the participation of some very special people. From the people who received stamps in the mail, to the people who participated in the workshop, interacted with us in the plaza, contributed to the installation, travelled with stamps, helped produce videos, gave advice, documented…

Huge thanks to:
Amanda, Amanda, Ana Paula, Anne Katherin, Belén, Cybelle, Gersey, Graziele, Gustavo, Igor, Ivan, Jason, José, Josy, Júlia, Lizzy, Marina, Natalia, Paloma, Paula, Ricardo, Rita, Salima, Shikha, Vinícius, Vitor.