CUTE BUT PSYCHO

The 28th edi­ti­on of Media Mediterranea Festival featu­res an inter­na­ti­onal pro­gram­me of exhi­bi­ti­ons and per­for­man­ces which under the name CUTE BUT PSYCHO explo­res the emo­ti­onal, super­fi­ci­al, seemin­gly super­flu­ous inten­si­ti­es of con­tem­po­rary cul­tu­re: the cute, the crin­ge, the zany, the weird – con­tent that cir­cu­la­tes end­le­ss­ly onli­ne. Vulnerable aes­t­he­tics that ren­der the wor­ld ado­ra­ble, jan­ky, awkward, and hyper-inte­res­ting in an I’ll-forget-this-in-two-seconds kind of way. These toxi­cal­ly swe­et aes­t­he­tic cate­go­ri­es that rely upon the schi­zop­hre­nic infras­truc­tu­res built on data extrac­ti­on, coer­ci­on and mone­ti­za­ti­on. They uphold plat­form capi­ta­lism that uses affect as cur­ren­cy, extrac­ts data thro­ugh par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on and ren­ders atten­ti­on a form of labor. Platform aes­t­he­tics that fun­c­ti­on as emo­ti­onal infras­truc­tu­res pro­du­cing attac­h­ments, com­mo­di­fi­ed inti­ma­ci­es, and algo­rit­h­mi­cal­ly medi­ated identities. 

Can’t you just help but won­der what kind of ges­tu­res appe­ar in a sys­tem of con­tra­dic­ti­on? Because to par­ti­ci­pa­te is to oscil­la­te betwe­en care­free ple­asu­re and com­pul­si­ve per­for­man­ce, betwe­en visi­bi­lity and self-sur­ve­il­lan­ce; con­ta­gi­ous­ly blur­ring the boun­da­ri­es betwe­en aut­hen­tic and fake, attrac­ti­ve and repul­si­ve, orga­nic and arti­fi­ci­al­ly gene­ra­ted. In such envi­ron­ments, subjec­ti­vity beco­mes co-aut­ho­red by users, plat­for­ms, and gene­ra­ti­ve sys­tems. From fren­zi­ed tec­h­no­lo­gi­cal sys­tems, boun­cing betwe­en spec­ta­cle and war­fa­re to a wor­ld of onli­ne radi­ca­li­za­ti­on and real-time meme­fi­ca­ti­on, ever-agre­eing AI chat­bots and data-extrac­ting plat­for­ms, anyo­ne can get away with anyt­hing as long as they are super­cu­te. Although desig­ned to appe­ar demo­cra­tic, auto­no­mo­us and objec­ti­ve, both user- and mac­hi­ne- gene­ra­ted con­tent envi­ron­ments sur­vi­ve due to the­ir like­abi­lity. A pan­de­ring mac­hi­ne; a cri­ti­cism-repel­lent media-tra­ined com­pa­ni­on that always appe­als to us, affir­ming our biases. Cute is never wit­ho­ut ter­ror, subor­di­na­ti­on and gore. Cute is always psyc­ho. Toxically posi­ti­ve or nega­ti­ve, whic­he­ver we pre­fer at the given moment. 

The bul­ly and the vic­tim, the cute psyc­ho expo­ses the­se secrets and appro­pri­ates all that is furi­ous, hys­te­ri­cal, rabid. In its ten­der aggre­ssi­on and exce­ssi­ve flexi­bi­lity, it demons­tra­tes hierar­c­hy and explo­ita­ti­on. Aestheticized as power­less, it appe­ars as an entran­cing, but gra­ting expre­ssi­on of dis­li­ke. Toying with leisu­re, enter­ta­in­ment, soft pro­vo­ca­ti­on and seduc­ti­on, it is tac­ti­cal in its benig­nity. We are inte­res­ted in how this vul­ne­ra­bi­lity can fun­c­ti­on both as stra­tegy and trap, how it can ope­ra­te as soci­al regu­la­ti­on as much as resis­tan­ce. Whether coming from a brat­ty human-aban­do­ned pige­on reflec­ting on her jour­ney towar­ds obso­les­cen­ce or a mum­mi­fi­ed influ­en­cer that subverts his­tory-making, CUTE BUT PSYCHO aims to pro­du­ce cri­ti­cal and enga­ged ima­gi­na­ri­es, open new for­ms of inti­macy, and unset­tle esta­bli­shed under­stan­din­gs of poli­ti­cal, eco­no­mic and tec­h­no­lo­gi­cal infras­truc­tu­res sha­ping our cor­po­re­ality, subjec­ti­vity and labor. 

KUĆĆA

k: KUĆĆA

a: Andrej Beštak & Anja Leko, Selin Davasse, Tullio della Cortiglia, Brad Nath, Alex Quicho, Markéta Slaná, Tea Stražičić, Levi van Gelder

The pro­gram is reali­zed with the sup­port of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the Kultura Nova Foundation, Istria County, the City of Pula, the City of Zagreb, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Republic of Croatia, in part­ner­ship with the KUĆĆA cura­to­ri­al col­lec­ti­ve, the Archaeological Museum of Istria, Novo Gallery, the Pula Film Festival, and the Giardini 2 Club-Bookstore. The festival’s media spon­sors are: Istra 24, Kulturistra, TV Nova, and Glas Istre.Media Mediterranea is a mul­ti­me­dia fes­ti­val held con­ti­nu­ous­ly sin­ce 1999, focu­sing on new media, tec­h­no­logy, and con­tem­po­rary artis­tic prac­ti­ces. Through exhi­bi­ti­ons, wor­k­shops, tal­ks, and per­for­man­ces, the fes­ti­val pro­mo­tes inno­va­ti­ve and inter­dis­ci­pli­nary appro­ac­hes, with a strong emp­ha­sis on sup­por­ting emer­ging artis­ts, fos­te­ring local and inter­na­ti­onal col­la­bo­ra­ti­on, and enco­ura­ging cri­ti­cal dialo­gue betwe­en art, audi­en­ces, and soci­ety. Media Mediterranea enga­ges with pre­ssing soci­al issu­es and invi­tes reflec­ti­on on the role of tec­h­no­logy and art in today’s wor­ld. The fes­ti­val aims to cre­ate an open plat­form for the exc­han­ge of knowled­ge, ide­as, and per­s­pec­ti­ves – thro­ugh media ran­ging from ana­log to digi­tal, from tac­ti­le to virtual.