Dreamy Interfaces, Homemade Toasters and Brainrot Theory

Loading - 19

Jan 02, 2025

things I found

1. The Toaster Project
This crazy work is from 2009, but somehow I just came across it. It’s called The Toaster Project. British designer Thomas Thwaites decided to recreate a mass-produced toaster from scratch (literally), extracting raw materials and processing them himself. The TED Talk about the project is also great.

2. IMG_0001
Between 2009 and 2012, iPhones had a built-in “Send to YouTube” button in the Photos app. Many of these uploads kept their default IMG_XXXX filenames, creating a time capsule of raw, unedited moments from random lives. Developer Riley Walz made a bot that crawled YouTube and found 5 million of these videos.

3. Dreamy interfaces
Telematic Dreaming was originally produced by Paul Sermon in June 1992 for the annual summer exhibition entitled ‘Koti’ at the Kajaani Art Gallery in Finland, linked via videoconference to the Tele Gallery in Helsinki. This full-length 40-minute documentary includes interviews and rare line-out recordings from the opening ceremony.

4. Brainrot Video Theory
I found a website that converts any PDF into a brainrot TikTok style video: memenome.gg. This was originally an academic essay discussing the meaning and usage of the word “art”. I don’t really have any comment to add, except that this is the AI art we need (and probably deserve).

valentinatanni

A post shared by @valentinatanni

5. The best artist you’ve never heard of
Cabel Sasser of Panic gave an amazing talk at XOXO Fest 2024. The presentation is about a little-known artist named late Wes Cook. Incredible artist, unmissable video.

6. Every webpage deserves to be a place
Matt Webb added a new feature to his website called cursor party. It lets web visitors see other people’s cursors on his site. And they can chat with each other and share text highlights. “It’s a miracle that we can feel togetherness over the internet. And yet! And yet!”. This is the internet I fell in love with, almost thirty years ago <3

7. all text in nyc
all text in nyc is a search engine that enables exploration of New York City’s urban landscape through text. Brilliant online project by Yufeng Zhao.

8. Occasional updates
A really cool website full of old Casio wrist camera photos taken more than 20 years ago: “It’s an amazing thing that looks just like a normal watch, but has a nifty little built-in digital camera that lets you take lots of photos on the quiet – and then beam them to your computer! Expect occasional updates documenting my travels and drunken nights…”.

things I did

Exit reality: introduzione alla realtà e a tutte le sue alterazioni, Più Libri Più Liberi, Roma - December 8th 2024
Aestheticisation of the Damaging Effects of Social Media and Doomscrolling - VAI Ireland online, Dublin - November 19th 2024
Vita e lavoro nell’epoca degli algoritmi: estetiche di internet e forme di resistenza, Bookcity Milano 2024 - November 14th 2024
NOTTE NOT, Brancaleone, Roma - November 8th 2024
La realtà per davvero, Festival Letteratura, Mantova - September 7th 2024

RADIO SAPIENZA - Intervista a Valentina Tanni, December 8th 2024 (ITALIAN)

things I wrote

Preda di forti emozioni | Prey to strong memes [MUdec United - ITA/ENG]
Corps à l’écran : court essai sur les mèmes performatifs [Hybrid Journal - FR]
La casa di Hermes. Corpi e schermi nello spazio [Afterword of “City of Legends” - ITA]
A New Start [Harper’s Bazaar Italia - ITA]
La strana ossessione di internet per gli gnomi [Lucy sulla Cultura - ITA]
Inhabiting the Paradox [Christoph Büchel - Fondazione Prada - ENG]
The Door That Won’t Open [Neural - ENG]
Battute sulla soglia. Una collezione di meme liminali [Charge Zine - ITA]

I’m proud to announce the release of the Greek edition of my book Exit Reality, published by the amazing Topovorosbooks | Translated by Sasha Romanou | Edited by llan Manouach | Cover image by Jared Pike.

upcoming…

TIME FOR SPOILERS. A lot of cool things are coming up: in mid-January I’ll be at the Centre for Digital Inquiry (University of Warwick) to livestream an episode of CDI-TV, an experimental initiative dedicated to the exploration of digital media culture through hybrid streaming. With Michael Dieter and Carolina Bandinelli.
On January 24th you can meet me in Rome at Liminal Space, a brand new transmedia arts venue run by the Liminal State collective. We have been working on a secret project for months: an immersive exhibition called THE LAMP (the title is a bit of a spoiler in itself). On February 5th I’ll be in Bologna at MAMbo for the opening of the group exhibition “Facile ironia. L’ironia nell’arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo”, curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molteni, presenting the brand new version of The Great Wall of Memes (IT WILL BE HUGE).
Last but not least, I wrote a new little book that is almost ready to be launched (out March 26th).