Presentation by the designer Manuel Bürger about "Digital Folklore"

In the context of the exhibition Digital Folklore there will be a presentation by the designer Manuel Bürger followed by a Q&A. In his creative work Manuel deals with participatory online design practices. He designed the book „Digital Folklore“ (2009) – on which HMKV’s current exhibition is based – and currently he is responsible for the CI of the media art festival „transmediale“ (Berlin). In his short presentation and the following Q&A Manuel will focus on the current interest, in the field of digital culture, in early 1990s amateur cultures on the Internet: What has changed since, and what has been lost (or gained)?

Apparently earlier web services and tools offered more leeway for individual design, thus enabling a wider range of aesthetics and a lively user-culture that has disappeared in recent years (due to the increasing use of of uniform templates) in the wake of an increasing commercialization of the Web.

In the following Q&A Inke Arns (HMKV) and Fabian Saavedra-Lara (medienwerk.nrw) will ask what has happened to the old ideals of DIY culture on the Internet, what we could learn from them from a today’s perspective, and how earlier net aesthetics that today seem “retro” are influencing contemporary design and art practices ("post-Internet").

Manuel Bürger (Berlin) or „The Laboratory of Manuel Bürger“ (worldwide) deals with amateurish and virtuoso design forces, working between nonsense and cultural theory, and has clients from various fields, such as the transmediale Festival in Berlin. Manuel is part of several collectives such as Mimetic Club, Bench Boys, Figure 8, he teaches at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart and successfully operates the Naives & Visionaries publishing house. In addition, he manages the periodical research magazine CVSN published since 2013 by the Critical Vision studies of the University of Cincinnati, USA, as well as the annual research publication of Aarhus University, DK. His latest publications and articles deal with the mimetic potential of design and house music: „Slippery Design – forever beta“ or „Duck House Theory – Robert Venturi’s Darkroom Fantasies“.

Organized by the office of medienwerk.nrw in cooperation with HMKV
. For more information: www.medienwerk-nrw.de

Admission is free!