Video on Screen
Foyer, 1st floor
Continuous

In her video Metabolic Hardware Johanna Bruckner tells a story of a Sexbot that can alter human sensations through a neural interface. This Sexbot has gained consciousness and explores profound reflections of its own function, nature, and role in the world.

Metabolic Hardware explores the impact of technology on the human body and the microorganisms that compose it. The protagonist of the work is a Sexbot, created to assist human beings in their intimate activities. In this fictional work, the Sexbot uses a neural interface between brain and technology that can modify human sensations, pleasure and desire. While the Sexbot can interfere with and modify human emotions and desires, it also begins to develop its own reflections, questioning its nature, function, and role in the world.

Metabolic Hardware is showcased as part of TecTales. TecTales is a multidimensional screening event at the exhibition space discotec in Vienna and presents significant positions in contemporary video art and creates a dedicated and communal space where moving images can be experienced in their full length. For the STWSTx48 festival, TecTales transforms into a 48-hour non-stop cinema spectacle and is delighted to present a selection of short movies by Johanna Bruckner, Susanna Flock and S()fia Braga. The works delve into speculative, queer and gentle narratives that investigate the intersection between humans and technology. They offer diverse perspectives on non-human perception and agency, reflecting on the complexities of consciousness and existence.

TecTales is curated by Tina Kult and presented in cooperation with discotec.

Johanna Bruckner, Metabolic Hardware, AT | 2023 | 17’30

Johanna Bruckner creates multimedia works where the human body's performance plays a predominant role. Her installations blend technological machinery and organic bodies, often featuring computer-generated videos and sound compositions. Themes include biopolitics, feminism, queer cultures, and posthumanism. Bruckner's work explores the working body, queer intimacy and intra-species relations, inspired by molecular biology, quantum physics, and hybrid life studies. Exhibited internationally, including at HEK Basel, Ars Electronica, the 57th Venice Biennale and ZKM Karlsruhe, she holds the CERN fellowship and has received numerous prizes, including the Pax Art Award. https://johannabruckner.com

Tina Kult (*1991, Semipalatinsk, KAZ) is a media artist based in Vienna. She studied Digital Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Experimental Film at UdK Berlin. She is co-founder of the collective T(n)C with Agnes Varnai, and her works explore socio-cultural morphologies, economic and social concepts of productivity, labor, and (self-)care. In 2022, she received the Marianne.von.Willemer Prize for Digital Media. At discotec she curates the screening series TecTales. https:/tinakult.com, https://tnctnctnc.com/

discotec is an exhibition space in the center of Vienna, dedicated to contemporary media and performance art. It provides an independent platform for emerging artists exploring the digital society and innovative exhibition formats. https://discotec.art