Eidolon is a fanatical ode to the image: a myth built on fragmented histories. In the year 2000, Jennifer Lopez wore a green, jungle-print dress designed by Donatella Versace, and the frenzy surrounding it was so intense that she "broke" the Internet, leading Google to invent Google Images just to keep up.
A few thousand years before, Helen of Troy’s face was said to have launched a thousand ships, kick-starting the legendary Trojan War. However, some say Helen never even went to Troy; that a carbon copy sculpted by the Gods ꟷan eidolonꟷ was sent in her place. If so, the ten-year war was fought for an illusion.
Our time is drenched in images, and images of images. Merging past, present, and potential futures, this desktop performance dredges the Internet, conflating fact and fiction in an act of post-truth digital myth-making.
This 15 minute screening follows a conversation between Xanthe Dobbie and Emily van der Nagel (9am-10.15am) as part of the Digital Intimacies #7 symposium. You are welcome to join at 9am for the conversation, or at 10.15am for the desktop performance.
Please note: registered attendees will be provided with a Zoom link to join the event. When you join, the previous symposium session may still be underway. Please remain on the Zoom link, as the artist's presentation will commence shortly.
About Digital Intimacies #7: Artistic program
Liquid Architecture, plus artists Xanthe Dobbie and Daniel McKewen will present online performances as part of the 2021 Digital Intimacies #7 symposium.
This year’s conference is hosted in partnership with UQ Art Museum’s Conflict in My Outlook exhibition series. We hope the conversations throughout the symposium and artworks in the current exhibitions stimulate engagements with how our lives are entangled with digital media, how digital media proliferate and obliterate intimacy, and the back and forth between our kaleidoscopic invention and creation with digital media.
The 2021 Digital Intimacies #7 Symposium is hosted by The University of Queensland's School of Communication and Arts and UQ Art Museum. Supported by the Digital Cultures and Societies Initiative and UQ Node of the Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.