WORDS BY THE AUTHOR / Objects and collages presented in this exclusive article for SWARM Mag are a follow-up of my diploma thesis, ‘Gadget Tools’, in which I have created a hypothetical future office accessorized with beautiful new devices designed to make your life easier but also, in fact, to control you. They appear very sleek and shiny with attractive surfaces but their purpose and function stays hidden from us. Yet, we desire to touch them, use them, own them.
These new objects are meant to give the impression as if they have escaped said office, somewhere unknown. Since then, they have evolved, matured, and aged. The photo collage-like structures which make their surface are a mix of original photographic work and visual files found on the internet, combining organic and technological motives, productong an uncertain feeling. These new devices keep us guessing whether they are fully artificial or partially organic. Whether they are just tools or have an intelligence of their own.
Darkened premises of the building are not as deserted as they may seem. Seemingly empty rooms with quietly whirring servers and cups with remains of cold coffee have come to life over the past several nights. Surely, an attentive visitor wouldn’t miss the voices on the edge of the ultrasound frequency and an almost unintelligible high-pitched sound.
“I am personified in this text although, in reality, the realness of my personal features is disputable,” declared Artificial ___ grimly.
“I am in more or less the same situation,” forebode Artificial ___.
“I‘d be happier if you rather told me what I am supposed to do with this!” Artificial ___ shuddered while he struggled to fling off a piece of salad from his Circles.
“Why would you even get into it in the first place?” Artificial ___ came up to him and under a weak radiation he absorbed the rotten food into the silicon pores of his Hair.
“Won’t you be sorry?” he asked.
“No, I have plenty of time to find something better.”
“When I think about it, I feel like all randomness conceals some important systemic aspect on which everything is based. Someone had to want it assembled randomly,” pondered Artificial ___ and began to heat up the plastic board of the table using the searing Aura. After a few seconds the material being forced into photosynthesis released several popping bubbles of oxygen on its surface. “Cheers!”
“My friends,” began Artificial ___ ceremonially. “Today we have gathered in quite the number, which is a success! Let’s try to be one tomorrow. I think we will do splendidly!
Over the last years, intellectual circles have appealed to humanity to abandon anthropocentrism in order to survive as species. They have urged people to reconsider our privileged position on the planet and show humility towards other forms of life. Opinions about establishing new and unorthodox relations, which could help us adapt to new circumstances determined by climate change resonate through the ether. However, the question of interspecies coexistence has never been our strong suit. What if someone surpasses us, succeeds in establishing new connections faster and thus prepares better for the future? Does it sound like sci-fi?
“Maybe but definitely not more than daily news,” added Artifical casually.
text by Michal Jalůvka
ABOUT / Lenka Glisníková is a Czech artist who works primarily with photography. Glisní- ková expands this medium to create installations and performative events where she questions the results of contemporary changes to human lifestyles that occur due to non-regulated technological progress. Glisníková perceives these developments as active phenomena that shape our ‘reality’. In her research, she explores the effects these new technologies have on ourselves, human bodies, minds and feelings. In her interpretation, technology is perceived as curating the way we work, rest, think, and organize our time.
Lenka Glisníková works on the intersection of photography and sculpture. Often combining various crafts with digital manipulation and post production resulting in sequences of actions in the processual body of work. Her work seems to be fascinated by the confrontation of minor physicalities (such as fingerprints) and immense size (the Internet, for example).
Lenka Glisníková studied at the photographic studio of the Faculty of Arts in Ostrava and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. She was nominated for the award for European art graduates‘ at STARTPOINT PRIZE 2019 and was awarded with the honorary mention of the jury. In the same year she was nominated – together with her colleague Karolína Matušková under their joint identity of „shotby.us“ – for the Czech Grand Design Award in the category Photographer of the Year. They later won the category in 2020.
CREDITS
Artworks / Lenka Glisníková
@lenkaglisnikova
Editing and translation / Františka Blažková
