Guided tour with Vladan Joler | Allegories of an automated present

Guided tour with Serbian researcher and artist, Vladan Joler in his exhibition Allegories of an automated present. The event can be visited by those with a protection certificate, and a mask must be worn in the exhibition space.

Allegories of an Automated Present – A solo show by Vladan Joler

Whether we are talking about the meteorological phenomenon or the infrastructure of information technology, the formation processes of clouds are influenced by air humidity and atmospheric pressure. For the first type of cloud the connection is straightforward, while for the second type the palpable network holding up the elusive structure is only partially dependent on terrestrial conditions such as the climate.

Even if they rely on geographical embedding, the shoots of the digital rhizome overgrowing the whole planet and conditioning its political and social dimensions are not determined by the rules of Newtonian absolute space. Their direct representation is therefore unimaginable. The research-based, metaphor-laden works of Vladan Joler aim to map this digital infrastructure and its invisible contexts through an accessible visual language. Joler occasionally collaborates with an expert in the field he is investigating—the anatomy of artificial intelligence, the gestalt of neural networks, or the social and political connotations of surveillance capitalism—in order to create comprehensive infographics. His interdisciplinary methodology utilizes the tools of data mining, mapping, investigative journalism, data visualization, and critical design.

The process of industrialization, with its provision of stable access to electricity, is a prerequisite for the development of networked information technology. The electrical center of the former Gas Factory of Óbuda is thus both the venue of the exhibition and a memento of the roots of automatization.