Techno Mythologies
Through a sensory total installation created for Christian IV’s Brewery, the artist duo Wang & Söderström present alternatives to the dominant narratives about technology. Over the past 30 years, our view of technology has been dominated by the emergence of the internet and the personal computer, along with the platforms and business models that have followed. Today, a few commercial companies largely define how we experience technology. We regularly receive software updates on our phones, and new hardware is constantly being launched. Most of these come from Silicon Valley in the USA, along with the narrative that their products will make our lives easier and bring us closer together. But what other narratives exist? The exhibition ‘Techno Mythologies’ offers new, speculative ideas on how we can collectively develop new narratives through contemporary art and reestablish agency in relation to our technology.
Christian IV’s Brewery is home to a collection of more than 350 sculptures from the Danish royal palaces and gardens from the 1500s to the 1700s. ‘Techno Mythologies’ transforms three central rooms on the ground floor with a blend of colors, sounds, and scents, designed to awaken the audience’s senses and offer a multi-sensory, immersive experience. Wang & Söderström, who grew up with an equal interest in digital and analog art, treat the digital and physical as equals in their artistic practice. Their new works encompass physical installations, augmented reality, and 3D animations, dissolving the boundaries between media to create sensory experiences tailored to the historic rooms and existing sculptures. While this hybrid practice may seem far removed from the royal sculptures of plaster and stone, both the historical works and contemporary installations share a common craftsmanship. Many of the physical installations are created using 3D printers, and like the historical sculptures, the artistic design is clearly evident in the material.