Tactics&Practice #16: Are you a software update? – NODE #3

The 16th edition of Tactics&Practice, Aksioma’s discursive programme exploring contemporary investigative art, society and new technologies, will take place from February to June 2025, in partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (UL ALUO). Are You a Software Update? interrogates how software systems govern interaction, perception, and decision-making. This year’s edition will also take place in three programme nodes at different locations in Ljubljana.

On Tuesday, 13 May, as a part of Node #3, both the lecture and the workshop will take place at UL ALUO, Tobačna.

Free entry! Registration required: https://pretix.eu/aksioma/ayasu

NODE #3

• LECTURE

13 MAY 2025, 16.00–17.00
UL ALUO, Tobačna 5, Lecture Room 3

Sophie Publig, Charlotte Reuß: Becoming-Girl: On Posthuman Subjectivities and Algorithmic Epistemologies

From TikTok phenomena like #GirlDinner to the rediscovery of girlblogging, the Girl Online embodies an era where hyperfemininity, nostalgia, and cuteness become tactical tools for navigating algorithmic systems. By strategically exploiting traditional categories of gender and identity, these digital aesthetics merge with methods of queer-feminist theory, postcapitalist thought, and posthumanist perspectives to illuminate the crafting of personal narratives beyond rigid conceptions of gender.

Drawing inspiration from platforms like Tumblr and Pinterest, we examine the Girl Online as a form of subjectivity that mediates between the collective and individual by means of a common aesthetic and language. This starting point allows for subversion and perversion of traditional conceptions of identity. Recognising that complicity with algorithmic structures of commercial social media platforms arise as a lack of alternatives in late stage capitalism, we frame algorithmicity not only as a constraint but as a space of subversion, where the Girl Online can be recontextualized to challenge normative identities.

Under the mantra of ‘the only way out is through’ we interrogate the tensions of living within surveillant control societies while exploring how subjectivities shaped by the algorithm can offer playful and profound avenues toward the posthumanist project. In this process of becoming-machinic, unfolding into becoming-girl, we offer a means to reimagine fixed notions of identity, expanding the horizons of self-expression in an era of pervasive technological entanglement.

• WORKSHOP

13 MAY 2025, 17.00–19.00
UL ALUO, Tobačna 5, Lecture Room 3

Sophie Publig, Charlotte Reuß: Choose Your Avatar – Girlblogging as posthumanist practice

In this workshop, participants will explore the fluid identity of the Girl Online through the lens of autotheory, using digital tools inspired by girlblogging practices such as journaling, speculative storytelling, fan fiction, browser tab histories, and moodboard archaeology. By reimagining life paths as narratives shaped by mood, energy, and traits—similar to creating a game character in The Sims—you’ll be able to consider how we construct and perform our identities online and irl. Projecting the contradictions embodied by the Girl Online onto personal avatar creation offers the possibility to perform a critique of gender stereotypes in connection to platform capitalism, while acknowledging the Girl Online’s identity as one rooted in late capitalism. Playing with the cultural artifacts of girlblogging allows participants to unearth the entanglements between their digital and meatspace selves and experiment with renarrating their existence through the perspective of the Girl Online.

Takeaways:

• A deeper understanding of the construction of fluid identities in the context of digital cultures, late stage capitalism, and posthumanism.
• Practical tools for storytelling and autotheory to craft new narratives.
• Media-specific techniques to engage with and reinterpret online artifacts, like browser tab histories and Tumblr archaeology.
• Updated insights into the interweaving between personal identity and digital cultures through the lens of the Girl Online.

Duration: 2 hours

Materials and knowledge required:

• No prior knowledge is required—just an open mind and willingness to explore!
• Participants should bring a laptop or tablet for online exploration and writing.
• A notebook or journal is recommended for offline sketching of ideas and reflections.

Free of charge. Registration required

Both events are additionally supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.