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Code is a project dedicated to art research on digital issues within our societal structures. Through an online collaborative research program, conferences and exhibitions, axes of reflection aim to deploy new discursive questioning about our digital everyday life. By exploring the inherent structure of society, what constitutes itself, its conditioning, its code… the research becomes a way to materialize a critical look on society, so as to not becoming dependent on structures we think normative, but above all to re-appropriate the codes.
The digital integration in our daily lives redefines data related to societal aspects, and it is exactly on this axis of reflection that Code is situated. Too often seen as a threat to our own reality, or on the contrary embodying the utopian promise of a better world, the ubiquitous digital environment is approached as an element that creates a gap between “true and wrong”. Whereas on the contrary, bonds must be created, in order to develop reflections around the societal issue of digital and analyze the digital influence and the conditioning on our way of living and thinking. By integrating art as a crucial element in a research discussion, the project Code positioning theoretical and empirical reflections side by side.
The online platform Code aims to connect researchers with similar questions about the digital society. Thanks to the fact that the exchanges do not focus on topics such as “new technologies” or “artistic expressions in new media” allows the establishment of an interdisciplinary emulation around digital questions related to the contemporary society and not a fascination for technology and science. Research is a daily activity in artist’s life, but it’s not often highlighted. By Code, the aim is to bring together artists to create a group-wide emulation, to share ideas and finally give a real place to the act of research in art. Then, this creation of a community of researchers is a horizontal collaboration between the artists and the structure Code – within everyone is involve for research, exchange concepts and move forward ideas. Code has an independent statut and has no exclusive contract with any partners or institutions (artistic, scientific, …) – this makes possible questioning outside the “confort zone” that is “institutionally accepted”. Those steps constituting the Code project allow to compose and discuss about the digital society.
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- CONTACT / An open-call for artistic applications precede the collaborative research program. Following this, two artists will be chosen to collaborate together.
- EXCHANGE / As soon as the contact is set up, 3 months of collaborative research will proceed online. The research focus will be free and will allow the exchange of ideas and ways of thinking about digital society. Every 2 weeks, the coordinator of Code project will contact the researchers to follow up, have an external view on the work and to keep a daily journal. From this, visuals from the research may be publish in order to report the exchanges and to allow their broadcast on the website of Code – codedigitalart.ch. However, Code project is an art research program rules by the researchers and it will be never ask to the artists to produce something, even in the form of research and no weekly or monthly “working hours” is required, because it is primarily a matter of setting a pace of research that is suitable for both researchers. If during a week or two or during a month, you don’t have time for research, nothing interesting spring from your research,… it’s fine, no problem at all. Code is an ongoing process, nothing “finished” is asked at the end of the program and no “consensus” is asked between your ideas and your collaborator’s.
- SHARE / Following the 3 months of research, a free and open to all public conference will take place to share the process of this research program. Under approval of the artists, the materials broadcast on-line will be used during the conference. The presence of the artists is not obligatory. The coordinator of Code project would introduce the content of the research. Besides, many devices are possible, in order to be present (on-line / skype).
- SPREAD / At the end of the year, a group exhibition will be setting up. Works, research materials, discussions and exchanges from the research programs and the conferences of the year will be presented. The online exhibition of the year 2019 will be part of the “The Wrong Biennale 2019” – thewrong.org
+ No funding available for the moment – please read: open-letter