Data Doom Desire

Presented by The Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures
Accompanying the Symposium ‘In Terms of Media…’

The group exhibition Data Doom Desire explores how the rationalist desire to quantify and animate the world through generative means shape not only our perception but also our beliefs and sense of being, highlighting the ramifications of this very impulse. Rather than viewing data-driven processes as purely technical, the works in the exhibition scrutinize how they shape collective sensibilities and more-than-human networks. Technical reproduction and representation – through micro- and macroscopic visualization, sonification, animation, or online feeds — have been central to how we interact with the world and how affective dimensions of reality are shaped: from early land surveys to the rise of modern colonial scientific tools, to data visualization, planetary networks, surveillance systems, military infrastructures and machine learning. Data Doom Desire focuses on biased scientific inquiry, the affective dimensions of online content, the limits of human cognition and the infrastructures of conflict, disaster fiction, and doomed outputs.

With works by Asia Bazdyrieva and Solveig Qu Suess, Sara Bezovšek, Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich, Santa Pile, Martin Gasser, Silvan David Peter, Christina Humer and Oleg Lesota, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Martyna Marciniak; Jenna Sutela

The Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures is a space for intervention, investigation, and experimentation within the expansive disciplines of arts, science, and technologies. Based at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the institute critically engages digital and algorithmic cultures. Building on the rich heritage of Viennese investigations into cybernetics, net cultures, media art, and tactical media, the institute serves as a vital node within a global network of research institutions on digital cultures.