»(un)learning bodies« at Württembergischer Kunstverein

(un)learning bodies centers and investigates the body’s role as a tool for understanding both existing and emerging technologies, as well as the self. As technological development accelerates, it becomes essential to establish a critical distance that allows a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of technology. This enables to better question its purpose, scale, scope, speed, and material and ecological effects. The program series (un)learning bodies will explore how to critically engage with technology while still encouraging a relationship between humans and machines that enables trust, pleasure, and the formation of social connections. 

How do we regain agency? How do we resist nonconsensual interactions and surveillance of bodies for corporate profit? How do we reckon with technology’s influence on our society? 

We consider »unlearning« as not only questioning ingrained interactions and letting go of outdated knowledge and beliefs, but also creating space for new learnings. This process of »learning« involves experimenting with and establishing new practices and rituals around digital tools to critically engage with the current discourse. It further welcomes a plurality of knowledge(s) by recognizing and inviting various forms of knowledge production and practice. Emphasizing experience, the program focuses on physical, tangible forms of interaction to reveal insights into and reflections on our present relationship with technology. Essentially, this means moving the body toward new experiences and unexpected connections. 

Participants are encouraged to engage in an embodied exploration of technology by making, sensing, and doing. The program will explore connections and relationships with technology across several chapters: the practice of engineering as a connector between communities; the practice of threading to understand the principles of computing; examining our relationship with food, changed through social media trends; and exploring the relationship between movement and data-driven technologies. 

The program is curated by Nataša Vukajlović. With Ren Loren Britton, Sarah Ciston, and Luiza Prado among others. 

The event is part of Akademie Schloss Solitude’s focus program Digital Cultures.