The Drop Shadow Talks: Digital Folklore, Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied

[img]http://dropshadowtalks.com/Banner.png[/img]

With the current generation of operating systems the drop shadow effect entered the graphical user interface to a new extent. In this context it raises not only windows from background wallpapers; it also stands for a visually enriched interface that strives towards three-dimensionality. Loaded with rich imagery, photorealistic icons and pseudo three-dimensional configurations the graphical user interface yet remains tied to its ?at medium. Bewildered by this paradox, the graphical user interface leaves the office it was made for and becomes a pop culture phenomenon.

This season the Drop Shadow Talks reply to current developments on the visually enriched layer for machine interaction. In the shades of evening lectures the Drop Shadow Talks will present art and projects in?uenced and inspired by the baroque graphical user interface.

http://dropshadowtalks.com

Talk 3, Artist talk
November 24, 7 pm
Digital Folklore
Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied, Merz Akademie Stuttgart

Technical innovations shape only a small part of computer and network culture. It doesn't matter much who invented the microprocessor, the mouse, TCP/IP or the World Wide Web; nor does it matter what ideas were behind these inventions. What matters is who uses them. Only when users start to express themselves with these technical innovations do they truly become relevant to culture at large. Users' endeavors, like glittering star backgrounds, photos of cute kittens and rainbow gradients, are mostly derided as kitsch or in the most extreme cases, postulated as the end of culture itself. In fact this evolving vernacular, created by users for users, is the most important, beautiful and misunderstood language of new media. Do you believe in users?

The Drop Shadow Talks are organized by and located at
Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule, Hochschule für Gestaltung (FH)
Bernburger Straße 24—25, D-10963 Berlin