Absurdist Electronics:

Wearable Coping Mechanisms, Techno-Anxiety and Thoughts on Dada

About

The DAHJ’s first VR gallery opened on June 24th at 9am PT with the exhibition “Absurdist Electronics: Wearable Coping Mechanisms, Techno-Anxiety and Thoughts on Dada.” The largest retrospective of Kathleen McDermott’s work to date, the exhibition focuses on McDermott’s work with wearables, a medium which is especially well-suited to an absurdist response, because the body in relation to technology has historically been subject to conflicting narratives, often limited to the utopia/dystopia binary. Taking inspiration from Dada tactics of using absurdity to blur boundaries and redirect attention, McDermott seeks to promote a more liminal conversation around the future of wearables, subverting principles of control and rationalism, which dominate commercial wearable design.

JOINING THE EXHIBITION ROOM

To access the VR exhibition environment, select your avatar and "Join Room" to view, or open the environment in a new browser window via this link. Before entering a Hubs room you are in the room's lobby. You can see and hear what's going on in the room but you can only interact with the others using text chat. The process of entering a room is a bit different depending on your device.

Please note that the environment only allows for 50 people to enter at a time. If you cannot join us right away, please wait a few minutes and try again. 

For more information, see this documentation on how to join rooms in Mozilla Hubs. 

NAVIGATION

If you are joining via a desktop, click and drag with your mouse to look around. Use the arrow key or the ‘W’, ‘A’, ‘S’, and ‘D’ keys to navigate forward, backward, up, and down based on the placement of your mouse. Using the ‘G’ key will allow you toggle between fly mode and ground mode. If you plan on joining from a touch-screen device or a VR headset, here is additional documentation regarding how to navigate.

Interview with Artist Kathleen McDermott

Interdisciplinary media artist and technology designer Kathleen McDermott, PhD is an Industry Assistant Professor at NYU. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Fast Company, and Dezeen, and has been exhibited internationally. In this virtual interview with DAHJ Gallery Director Francesca Albrezzi, they use avatars to conduct their discussion within the VR gallery. Their conversation spans McDermott’s approach to wearables, the intersection of gender and design, the influence of the Dadaist movement and Alvin Toffler’s notion of “future shock,” and the interconnectedness of performance, performativity, and embodiment.