SITUATION #127

As our lives take place increasingly on screens, our social interactions shift to media plattforms. We chat with our families on our smartphones, we look for love swiping our touchscreens and meet our friends in online game simulations. As our avatars become more and more photorealistic and models of cities and people become algorithmically generated, photographic practices that deal with representation of society are radically transformed. How can photography document these new modes of interacting, and what does it mean for photographers to exist in such spaces? Furthermore what happens when photographic acts are simulated, and photorealistic avatars become the subjects of our portraits? What can photo reportages of these virtual yet very real worlds tell us about our interactions and about photography at large?

The artists Simone Niquille, Roc Herms and Alan Butler will run three parallel workshops in a day-long event during the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography 2018, guiding participants into photographic explorations within game spaces attempting to reflect on these themes. Under the guidance of these three artists, participants will engage with issues of representation and identity, bridging the physical world and the one on screen. The results of the workshops will later be exhibited during the festival.

Workshop Photographing Virtual Spaces: 5 May 2018, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
The workshops will be conducted in English.
Location: Schule für Gestaltung Bern und Biel/Ecole d’Arts Visuels Berne et Bienne.
Free admission. Registration is required: goo.gl/forms/xdFEbmaF8LBykixf2
For further information, please contact digitalintern@fotomuseum.ch

Exhibition Photographing Virtual Spaces: 6–27 May 2018
Opening: Sunday, 6 May 2018, 4 p.m.
Location: Photoforum Pasquart

​More about Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography: bielerfototage.ch

​A cooperation with Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography.