Artist Talk | Whisper: Cyberdeck Diary
Event Details:
Location
Stanford Art & Art History
Stanford University
Oshman Hall, McMurtry Building
355 Roth Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6070
United States
This event is open to:
Please join us on May 26 for an artist talk with Whisper, Stanford Lecturer in Experimental Media Arts.
Oshman Hall, McMurtry Building, Stanford, CA
Tuesday, May 26 • 5:30 PM - 7 PM
The trend of building cute, custom, single-purpose computers has taken over TikTok while also receiving significant mainstream press framing these devices as everything from an "anti-AI gadget," (Wired) "the most punk thing you can do right now" (Dazed), and the hobby of "the coolest girls you know" (RUSSH).
What does this trend tell us about the broader cultural yearning for digital autonomy? Are these computers for using, or is their purpose to be posted online?
Whisper has been customizing computers since 2015, and they have been central to her art practice since 2022. Cyberdeck Diary is an exploration of the contemporary computing trend, through the lens of three unique devices: an open source sound computer, an archive terminal in a Pelican case, and a ten year old laptop.
How can the quest for individualized computing bring us closer to reimagining collective rituals of computation?
If you need a disability-related accommodation or wheelchair access information, please contact Julianne White at jgwhite@stanford.edu. This event is open to Stanford affiliates and the general public.
Whisper is an artist based in Los Angeles, who dreams of computing that feels like augmented presence, cultivated through generations of loving care. Through poetry, performance, software, and hardware, her practice centers living differently with technology. She stewards a network of servers and websites with the collective Secret Server Club, and with her partner Hal as Resonant.love. She is also co-founder of New Art City Virtual Art Space.
Students interested in the themes of Cyberdeck Diary may also wish to enroll in Whisper’s winter 2027 course ARTSTUDI 126: Net Art: History and Practice of Networked Media, which explores internet art, media theory, cybernetics, and digital culture through both critical study and hands-on creative experimentation. Students will study canonical works of internet art while also making websites, experimenting with software, and exploring the dying art of *surfing* the web.
