Simulation, custom steel structure, 2023
[test] see also is a set of compressed images and feelings, collected during the artistic research of Ukraine war images. The research started to document methods and tactics of Ukrainian collectivity forming through online practices. The material used focuses on burnt-out, compressed, pixelated, and blurred images, and tries to reveal the nature of those artifacts caused by distorted perception systems, the logic of war-time (self)censorship, and the politics of digital platforms.
With this type of images, the matted emotional states under the cyberwar are decompressed. They are caused by the continuing emotional and affective labor of Ukrainians in an attempt to maintain their/our own vital collectivity and the permanent "interest" in this war among the global community.
Drawing on the concept of "communicative militarism", coined by Svitlana Matvienko and Nick Dyer-Witheford, the merger of the logic of platform capitalism and military tactics in the context of cyberwar are explored.
The project is implemented based on Unity software and will be available to users in the form of some kind of mix of video essay and archive with limited control elements.
Lera Malchenko and Oleksandr Hants are part of the two-month Digital Art Residency programme in collaboration with Pro Helvetia. see also: the set of compressed images and feelings was developed during the residency.
