LO(L) – Embodied Language

Those who want to understand the present, must learn its language. Considering the changes within media landscape and the complex challenges posed by an increasingly globalized world, it becomes clear that our well-familiar vocabulary no longer adequately describes given realities. 1969 LO was the first digitally transmitted message. It was intended to be the word login, but the system crashed after the first two letters. Whereas the acronym LOL – Laughing out loud, deriving from internet slang, has become a firmly established element of our language and has become part of the digital body language shaped by algorithms. Only fifty years lie between the first attempts to exchange information via computer and today’s use of language codes. Thus LO and lol reflect both the enormous speed of ongoing digital transformation and the formative influence it exerts on our communication behaviour. The exhibition LO(L) – Embodied Language, combining various artistic approaches in large-format text, sound and video installations, examines how language, writing, images and sounds connect us digitally in real time and permeate our living and working worlds. Recent developments in information and communication technology, including the challenges and opportunities they present, are critically discussed in this group exhibition.