I Don’t Know How to Respond to That: the third edition of PhMuseum uses the medium of photography to reflect on the dialogue between humans and machines, the evolution of language, and environmental issues
PhMuseum Days International Photo Festival, Bologna: ‘I Don’t Know How To Respond To That’, the 2023 theme
Human beings – with their limitations – employ technology to supplement, elevate, or alleviate daily tasks. Technology has become an integral aspect of the human experience, with both positive and negative implications.
‘I don’t know how to respond to that’ is the response that virtual assistants (e.g., Siri) give when they cannot find a solution to requests. This statement raises questions about the role of technology in human lives and society, and how it impacts the ways of living and communicating.
This will be the theme of the third edition of the International Photography Festival, PhMuseum Days, in Bologna. The event will feature a program of exhibitions, talks, screenings, portfolio reviews, and a section dedicated to independent photographic publishing. The aim of the 2023 edition is to initiate a reflection on the dialogue between humans and machines, the evolution of language, and environmental issues that still lack solutions.
«We must delve into these matters in order to raise issues concerning copyright and legal regulations as well. Art is used a medium to keep that conversation going and shine a light on the controversial times we are living in», explain the curators Giuseppe Oliviero and Rocco Venezia.
AI-Infused Artistic Explorations: RAM_4.0 and Another Online Pervert at PhMuseum Lab in Bologna
The festival preview opened on May 18th at the PhMuseum Lab with RAM_4.0 by Sara Bastai, a fictional narrative of the artist’s life developed through a conversation with Artificial Intelligence. By sending hundreds of photos from her smartphone to an algorithm that analyzed the images and described what it saw, Bastai created new scenarios based on the generated captions, resulting in a work that explores memory and the augmented representation of society.
The conversation with AI also reappears in Another Online Pervert by Brea Souders, a project in which photos taken by Souders are combined with a chatbot’s dialogue for an exploration of how machines and humans can learn from each other to build a shared narrative.
PhMuseum Days 2023: recreating life through the lenses of Artificial Intelligence
The boundary between the real and virtual becomes increasingly blurred as seen in West of Here by Leonardo Magrelli, which, at first glance, appears to be a classic photographic reportage of Los Angeles but is, in fact, set in Los Santos, a fictional city in the video game Grand Theft Auto V. The eerily realistic virtual landscapes are all derived from wallpapers and screenshots taken by different users while playing the game and reproduced in duotone printing.
One of the festival’s standout guests will be the photographer Penelope Umbrico, who has long been exploring the ever-growing production and consumption of online photos through an artistic lens. Her exhibition, Out of Order, delves into the ubiquity of devices and screens in our lives and the significance of their life cycle, using gathered images to chart their evolution and our evolving relationship with them over time.
Environmental concerns explored at PhMuseum days 2023: The Cool Couple’s NFT
The interplay between technology and contemporary life is also the core of the exhibition Known and Strange Things Pass by Andy Sewell. This work challenges the human perception of objects through photographs taken on both sides of the Atlantic, in places where much of the internet’s cabling passes through.
The ecological impact of the internet and aviation is the focus of Flyin’ High by the duo The Cool Couple (Niccolò Benetton and Simone Santilli, Italy). It is a virtual simulation of a one-hour flight from Milan to Rome on a digital airplane, which is also an NFT. Purchasing the NFT theoretically corresponds to boarding a real plane and causing the same environmental pollution by emitting an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.
Algorithms, human identity, technological devices and the future of Earth: PhMuseum 2023 photographic exhibitions
The curatorial journey will also explore the theme of language through two works: captionthis by Luca Massaro, a project on the ever-changing connections between images and the modern world, the disappearance of writing, and mimetic and memetic representations.
Security Questions by Daniel Everett refers to the security questions used by algorithms to confirm human identity and addresses the gap between the complexity of a person and the technological systems we use to differentiate humans from non-humans.
Finally, Non-Technological Devices by artist Chloé Milos Azzopardi: an imaginative vision of the future, where the artist creates ‘organic cyborgs’ by inventing ‘non-technological devices’ – composite instruments crafted from natural elements gathered and assembled to mimic the technological devices that populate everyday lives.
PhMuseum’s 2023 Event: Exploring Art and Culture in Bologna’s Evolving Landscape
The event curated and organized by PhMuseum, will take place from September 22nd to October 1st 2023, at the Spazio Bianco in DumBO and locations around the city of Bologna. The expansion beyond DumBO’s Spazio Bianco serves as a way to strengthen the relationship with the city and cultural operators, featuring exhibitions in both public and private spaces.
Starting with the collective installation I Don’t Know How To Respond To That in the courtyard of the Archiginnasio Library, featuring 40 photos by international artists selected through an open call around the theme of this edition. The exhibition, open for free visits from September 18th to October 2nd, is designed to foster an open collective reflection for both citizens and visitors.
The bulletin boards on Via dell’Abbadia, curated by CHEAP, will host Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana – A Democracy in Fatigue by Gloria Oyarzabal. This work reflects on the postcolonial gaze and power, inspired by the (self) critique that emerges in Pasolini’s film with the same name during a dialogue between the director and a group of African students.
GALLLERIAPIÙ will host Deposit by English artist Felicity Hammond from September 20th. This series of digital collages explores the relationship between data mining, mineral extraction, and the devices that mediate these encounters, envisioning a future material composed of industrial waste and by-products of technological growth.
At the Cassero LGBTI+ Center, Namsa Leuba presents her latest series of works, Illusions, where members of the LGBTQ+ community in Tahiti echo the visual style of Gauguin for an interpretation that subverts the typical tropical images of modern art that fetishize the exotic female body. Among the other works presented at the festival are Folio, produced during the PhMuseum masterclass dedicated to the photobook, and the customary collective exhibition resulting from a call related to the theme of each edition.
PhMuseum Days 2023: Her Dream Of A Blue Garden at Condominio in Milan
Additionally, for the third consecutive year, the program includes a collaboration with Portofino Dry Gin. This year, artist Martina Giammaria has been invited to engage with the theme of PhMuseum Days, using Portofino as the backdrop for her conceptual research. Her exhibition Dream Of A Blue Garden, from September 14th to 28th at Condominio in Milan, takes the viewer on a surreal and dreamlike journey through Portofino, where two dancers gradually become an integral part of the surrounding landscape.
Portfolio reviews will take place exclusively online (with reservations on the website) on September 28th, featuring Chiara Bardelli Nonino, independent curator and editor, Francesca Marani, Global Photo Editor of PhotoVogue, Giangavino Pazzola, Associate Curator at Camera, Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, Svetlana Bachevanova, Executive Director of FotoEvidence Association in France, Yumi Goto, independent photography curator, researcher, and editor, and Sara Occhipinti, co-founder of Studiofaganel in Gorizia.
Lastly, there will be a space dedicated to independent photographic publishing (Publisher Hub), featuring invited publishers such as GOST Books, Overlapse, RVM Hub, Setanta Books, Skinnerboox, Studiofaganel, and Witty Books.
PhMuseum
PhMuseum is a platform focused on discovering and nurturing photographers functioning as a dynamic hub for artists. Founded in 2012 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the project now operates from Bologna, Italy, in the PhMuseum Lab. Every year the community gathers at the PhMuseum Days International Photography Festival.
