ECAL Resident at La Becque from February to July 2020
BIO
Simone C. Niquille, Swiss designer and researcher based in Amsterdam, joined us from February to July 2020, in collaboration with François Zajéga, a software artist living in Brussels. Simone C. Niquille's practice, Technoflesh, investigates the representation of identity & the digitisation of biomass in the networked space of appearance. She taught in the MA Photography and BA Media & Interaction Design, as well as participate in the research project Automated Photography. François Zajéga started his carrier as a designer and web-developer in the early 2000. He later joined the numediart institute, a research lab from to the University of Mons (BE), as a specialist in image processing and human/machine interaction. In the same time, he started to exhibits his work across Europe in festival and galleries. Highly involved in libre software and libre culture, he’s teaching programming for art and videogames in several schools.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Simone Niquille
The assignment draws inspiration from traditional portraiture but intentionally diverges, enabling a critical exploration of the cultural and digital constructs of 'self' and 'family' through the lens of Neural Filters, emphasizing daily output over quality, with editing deferred until later in the presentation preparation stage.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Simone Niquille, François Zajega
Mention Bien The work addresses genetic determinism, representation, network infrastructure and privacy using a range of digital techniques to reflect on technology. Current technological approaches are characterised by an aspiration to map the world in order to achieve a full quantification of reality, reducing the subject to mere data or a collection of commodified objects. The installation uses a range of technological tools (VR, DNA analysis, AI, photography) and aims to present the outcomes of my theoretical research through a personal journey.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Simone Niquille, François Zajega
Digging a hole and excavating the land can be seen as the most primitive and elementary human activity. However, it is also something to which all human activity can be reduced to. This project mainly investigates our relationship with the land by depicting a strange reality in which a two-dimensional ground plan opens up to reveal tunnels of different shapes and sizes. The work is meant to create a sort of religious journey, enabling the viewer to contemplate life, cyclical reality and perpetual motion through unending paths and tunnels.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Simone Niquille, François Zajega
“Counter Faith” addresses a personal narrative with the aim of understanding the driver behind the construction of gated communities in Indonesia, while the violent events of 1998 remain unresolved in the nation’s damaged belief system. Single-channel video, 10'34"