agent Paranyushkin

November 15, 2013

Interviews with Artificial Artificial Intelligence is a project where I interviewed Amazon's recommender system asking it to provide me with responses to the images I submit. In October 2013, I presented this work as a video installation at Beursschouwburg in Brussels, Belgium. The way the system works is that it receives an image from the customers and sends them a recommended product based on that image. It is powered by algorithms and when the algorithms fail it outsources this task to humans, who are mainly low-paid workers from India and China. On the left are the pictures that were sent, on the right are the products that were received. Over time certain logic emerges, which has a lot to say about the modern capitalism, absence of censorship, and the constant drive towards improvement and growth. Recommender systems, the basic building block of any website today, determine the news we see, the posts we...

July 25, 2013

in Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin

Polysingularity Framework @ LIP6 Lab, Paris VI | 06/2013

In June 2013, I was invited to present my work at the LIP6 laboratory of computer science at Paris VI university. I took this opportunity to present the Polysingularity framework that I've been developing for 2 years prior to that, which encompasses the ideas from network sciences and complex systems theory to propose a kind of heuristics that allows for several truths to co-exist at every point of time. During the presentation, I demonstrated how this framework, which was developed as an artistic and philosophical project first, was then implemented into many real-world projects. From text analysis software Textexture, to body practices that we used in performative settings. It was especially interesting to present this work in a scientific context, to the people who work in academia, as it was not the kind of content that was usually presented at Lip6 lab events. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the openness of the...

May 15, 2013

in Performance, Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin

The Humping Pact @ Mousonturm | 05/2013

The Humping Pact. Live performance by Dmitry Paranyushkin and Diego Agulló. Presented at Mousonturm theater in Frankfurt in May 2013. In this performance, we were exploring the connection between the spectacle, space, technology, and the body. Most theater performances rely on stage design, lights, and sound, creating an atmosphere to carry the audience into an imaginary world. We investigate the processes of setting up a stage for a performance and preparing a space for a happening, revealing its meditative and ceremonial nature as well as a bond and sensuality that emerge in a collective work. The process of setting up a space is akin to creating a new form of life. Bodies form into shapes, shapes create patterns, a language emerges. The inevitable end of this construction and its simulated nature make it futile from the very beginning, but it is this very futility that makes sense through the traces it leaves...

March 28, 2013

in Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin

OK Performance @ Kunsthalle Charlottenborg | 03/2013

In March 2013, I was invited to present the OK Performance at Kunsthalle Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, Denmark. OK Performance was born from my practice of exploring polysingularity of meaning in language that emerges from repetition. In this performance, I repeat "OK" for 20 minutes changing the voice, the intent, the context, the circumstances. While it is common knowledge that repetition helps to remember things, it can also be used to disassociate signifiers from signified. As a result, there is a space opening up for multiple interpretations, which is particularly interesting to explore in a performative context. Suddenly, a simple "OK" can be perceived as an expectation or a proposal. This reveals the hidden potential of language and communication that exists at every moment of time if only we take a longer moment to pause and question our perception of reality. ...

March 15, 2013

in Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin

Transnomia & The Humping Pact @ Brut | 03/2013

A live performance and video installation, together with Diego Agulló....

October 27, 2012

in Books, Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin

Polysingularity Letters @ Kunstfabrik | 10/2012

In October 2012, I presented my new book Polysingularity, volume 3, at the Kunstfabrik Am Flutgraben in Berlin. This book was part of a fictional collection of research works on the concept of polysingularity that I was developing since 2010. The book features texts and artworks created between 2009 and 2012. Each work is an exploration of polysingularity methodology in the context of a certain practice. The most interesting part of the research to me, at the time, was the ability of the human mind to interpret the same phenomenon in multiple ways, to conceive of the different causes that may lead to the same event, or to imagine several different perspectives on the same situation. So I was interested in creating works and texts that could make sense in a variety of different ways and that could be placed in completely different contexts. Their relational nature revealed something very crucial about...

May 25, 2012

in Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin

Collective Action Lecture @ Re:Publica | 05/2012

In May 2012, I gave a presentation on collective action and information epidemics at Re:Publica conference in Berlin. In the year prior to that, Russia saw a rise in opposition movements that self-organized on the internet using various platforms. Using my background in network science, I studied these online communities to extract some of the principles for self-organization that are typical for an uprising. To me, the most interesting part was how much correlation there is between the structure of the network and the collective choreography it can perform, both in the physical space during a demonstration and in the virtual space for self-organization and maintenance. It turned out that communities that are tightly knit are better mobilised but at the expense of a shorter lifespan. They are also more susceptible to infiltration as there are no backup centers of powers. So there is a certain balance to be found when...

April 25, 2012

in Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin

The Humping Pact @ Oberhausener Kurzfilmtagen | 04/2012

The Humping Pact was a project that we created together with Diego Agulló during our residency at PACT Zollverein choreography center in Essen, Germany. In April 2012, we presented a short film derived from the project at Oberhausen short film festival. This project was exploring the relation between desolate landscapes, urban revitalisation, and masculine sexuality. In February 2011, during the residency, we discovered the beautiful Zollverein coalmines, which were abandoned since years and yet still carried the old potential within. We decided to see what happens if we shift our residency right into this desolate industrial landscape, attempting to revitalize it with an act of simulated stimulation towards the environment. As a result, a series of videos were born, which were first presented at Zollverein and, later, at Oberhausener short film festival. ...

January 27, 2011

in Presentations

by agent Paranyushkin