pop-up exhibition: post social media landscape

This article was developed within the program Venture an Idea funded by the USAID.

For the past eighteen months, 25 artists and designers across Europe have been exploring the world after the death of social media: what comes next? Their speculations on alternative phy-gital (physical meets digital) futures have ranged from bleak, austere dystopias to hopeful, inspired utopias. This process has presented many thoughts on where the human ends and the tech begins, disobedient electronics and existentially, what is left of a human that cannot be digitized? By speculating on different future scenarios (those that are probable, plausible and possible) we are also able to grasp a better understanding of the present day.

The exhibition, which comes as a result of the collaborative process, is a part of Post Social Media Club project, opens on Friday 17 at 7 pm, and will be open for three days (until Monday 20) at Nova Iskra Workspace Dorćol. It lands simultaneously in 5 European countries, and it consists of art installations and documentation of artistic explorations. Artworks presented in the exhibition pose questions on ownership of our social media data, and the weight of our digital life. Others are speculating on how to understand human history based on our social media lives. Does the abundance of data in our lives lead to losing connection with our own emotions? Finally, the exhibition presents artworks that come as a critique of immersive technologies (i.e. metaverse) by portraying the complexity and social and political tensions that these technologies induce. 

What is the Post Social Media Club project?

Post Social Media Club investigates and explores the post social media landscape. Using Speculative Design, 25 young promising creatives from Greece, Sweden, Serbia, France and Turkey are brought together to explore, investigate and speculate on a world post-social media, and then create artwork that reflects these interpretations. 

Post Social Media Club project is funded by the European Program Erasmus plus, led by STPLN (Sweden) with its partners Bios (Greece), Atolye (Turkey), Volumes (France) and Nova Iskra Creative Hub (Serbia).

What is speculative design?

Speculative Design is an approach in which the designer takes the role of an agent who poses a problem rather than a solution. The premise of speculative design is speculation, and this combines elements of fiction, imagination and an X factor. In lieu of the current political, environmental and social climate, speculative design can offer a much-needed space for alternative perspectives, ideas and narratives. 

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This article was made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this article are the responsibility of Nova Iskra and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.