Plokta Lectures & Film: The Hidden Life Of Technology

This event is part of Press Lots of Keys to Abort Festival. 𝗣𝗹𝗼𝗸𝘁𝗮 is a new film festival that unravels 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 → www.plokta.nl

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Dig deeper into Plokta’s theme with this special program of exclusive lectures, performances and screenings. Getting to the heart of the festival, artists and researchers present and perform works considering different aspects of the Hidden Life of Technology.

𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗵𝗮𝗺 𝗞𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘆 (GB)
Explore the fictional island of King Kong in this live video essay by Graham Kelly. Since the original 1933 classic, numerous interpretations of the iconic ape have reflected the contexts of their eras and audiences. Plokta premieres the latest part of this ongoing series of performances and video works, examining the ideological and financial stories hidden in these seminal chapters of cinema.

𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗮 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗷𝗱𝗲𝗻 (NL)
Donna Verheijden’s kaleidoscopic video essay, “Eye Trick the I” explores the (un)reality of representation from art history to social media. She finds an eerie humour in how we construct ourselves through visual and digital culture. The result is a visual onslaught of data and images, where questions about public/private life are raised and then left unanswered in the endless scroll. Followed by a unique performance by the artist, created interactively with the Plokta audience.

𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘄 𝗞𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗲 (US)
Mathew Kneebone explores the history of electrical innovation and the cultural mechanisms that we adopt to cope with its change. Opening the Saturday program, he considers how visible technologies have become invisible throughout history. The talk correlates technical complexity, malfunction and user anxieties with mythology, superstition and science fiction.