UNINVITED

Nye Thompson & UBERMORGEN (2020)

An alternate reality explodes on Halloween 2020. An invisible networked super-organism oscillating between anxiety, lust, and horror. Described by the artists as 'a radically new creature looking at the world and nothing makes sense,’ the synthetic organism apprehends the universe through millions of hallucinogenic virally abused (CCTV) sensors. Thompson & UBERMORGEN’s life-form continually evolves by using human and machine learning. It defines its own existence and distributed agency through undergoing fear, instability, aggression, and vulnerability. UNINVITED can be experienced as a horror film, an online experience (web), and an installation. By disrupting the traditional contract between the work and the visitor, the life-form insists on its own autonomy. Observers become part of this ostensibly alien organism.

uninvited.icu

31/10/2020 – Furtherfield Gallery
06/11/2020 – ElectroPutere Gallery

Nye Thompson is an artist turned software designer turned artist. She creates data-gathering software systems to explore new technology paradigms, and has a particular interest in the machinic gaze and its underlying power dynamics. She has exhibited internationally including Tate Modern, The Barbican, The V&A, ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica and The Lowry. Her first solo show Backdoored.io – described by C4 News as “too shocking to broadcast” – became global clickbait and triggered an international government complaint. Her work has been featured on BBC, C4, CNN, the Guardian and Wired, and she was a guest presenter on BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Art of Now: Surveillance’. She has been called “the new Big Brother” (Vogue) and “a contemporary Jacques Cousteau” (Bob & Roberta Smith). She has received several Arts Council England and British Council awards. She was a Lumen Prize finalist in 2018 & 2019, and shortlisted for the 2019 Rapoport Award for Women in Art and Technology. Her work was recently acquired for the V&A Museum’s permanent collection.

nyethompson.co.uk

UBERMORGEN is an artist duo founded in 1995. Autistic actionist lizvlx and pragmatic visionary Hans Bernhard are net.art pioneers and media hackers widely recognized for their high-risk research into data & matter and polarising social experiments. CNN called them 'Maverick Austrian Business People' during their Vote-Auction online project. They reached a global audience of 500 million while challenging the FBI, CIA, and NSA during the US presidential election. In 2005, they launched their acclaimed EKMRZ Trilogy, a series of conceptual hacks – Google Will Eat Itself, Amazon Noir, and The Sound of eBay. UBERMORGEN occupies 175 domains. Their exhibitions include New Museum, USA; Somerset House, London; Haifa Museum of Art, Israel/Palestine (2019); Wei-Ling Contemporary Malaysia; HKW, Germany; ZKM, Germany; National Art Gallery, Bulgaria (2017); ICA Miami, USA; Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius (2015); Serpentine Galleries, London, UK (2014); Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark; Ars Electronica, Austria; MoMA Ljubljana, Slovenia; ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2013); 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Japan (2012); Centre Pompidou, France; Gwangju Design Biennale, Korea; WRO Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland (2011); Prague Biennale, Czech Republic (2009); Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2008); MOCA Taipei (2007); The Premises, Johannesburg, South Africa; ICC Tokyo, Japan (2005); SFMOMA, USA (2001).

ubermorgen.com

LETTERBOXD
‘You love them as they stick the knife in further, slowly killing you away. You’ll understand when it’s meant for you. You’ll understand when it’s meant for you.’

EFILMCRITIC.COM – 4/5
'Unquestionably it's a feat of imagination and technique, but an hour of it is more than enough.'

Imdb.com
'*8.9'

Adventure Gamers
'One of those experiences where you need the hive mind to get anywhere.'

Shift Japan
'Thom Kubli shows us a myriad of different types of sounds in the UNINVITED universe.'

CINEPASSION
'Sustained with satirical expressionism for indelible clamminess.'

HORROR_BOT976
‘In the end. As a freak show... This film for what it was, a disgusting memorable sequences of sickening imagination. Deserves its takes on tired sci-fi/action ideas reputation. Memorable sequences of sickening.’

CINEMA EM CENA – 2/5
‘Exerccio surrealista histrico e obviamente ludita que, apesar de substituir as idias pelo corte rpido, cria uma atmosfera de pesadelo sufocante.’

EYE FOR FILM
‘Combines early Lynch's monochrome industrial landscapes, Cronenberg's body horror, Ballard's obsession with crashes and wounds, and Svankmajer's frenetic stop-motion oddity (and staccato editing), but it nonetheless remains a singular monstrosity.’

HOUSE OF HORRORS
‘A disgusting and psychedelic trance, more like a bad dream rather than a proper film, but an interesting experience nevertheless.’

Interview Magazine
‘They sift through layers of socio-cultural and techno-genetic influences in an attempt to examine, define and celebrate new compound identities. The work speaks about the duality experienced when attempting to internalize societal precepts, using mixed media as a metaphor to address the various layers and complexities of genealogical and geographical impact on the self and the networks we are embedded in, and they take on a psychological approach with the use of light and colour to represent the permeation of cross-cultural influences.’

TSA Art Magazine
‘An networked organism is a phenomenon that was first documented in 1994 but only recently used by Thompson & UBERMORGEN. According to our reference, UNINVITED, this behavior now shows significant improvement and this new compound intelligence seems to be able to create artworks reflecting upcoming trends in art & technology.’

Timeout – 5/5
‘Do Not Miss This!!!’

Composer/sound designer: Thom Kubli

Website & Identity: Studio Hyte

Industrial Design & Monster Prototype: Tareg Al-Zamel

Photography & Videography: Geoff Titley

Project Consultant: Adrian Bojenoiu (ElectroPutere)

Producer: Andreea Bojenoiu (ElectroPutere)

Producer: Charlotte Frost (Furtherfield)

Software Architecture & Machine Learning: Richard Hopkirk & Martin Dixon

Mechatronics: Modulab Bucarest

CCTV visual prototypes: Alexander Zenker

Funding Partners:
Arts Council England
Pro Helvetia
Administration of the National Cultural Fund / Romania
City of Vienna
Federal Chancellery of Austria
OKdo
British Council
Haringey Council
The Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest