METRONOM

Hardly Working (2022), a 4 channels video installation by Austrian collective Total Refusal, is the fifth video screening inside Metamorphosis, fifth edition of DIGITAL VIDEO WALL, an annual project structured in thematic chapters, which promotes the dissemination and experimentation of digital art.

Metamorphosis is the theme chosen for the fifth edition of the DVW, which focuses on the visual and conceptual investigation carried out by several artists at the intersection of artificial intelligence, bots, algorithms, virtual and gaming environments. The series unfolds across multiple thematic threads, exploring how the new frontiers of technology shape human dynamics and how they constantly redefine our relationship with machines and technology. 

Hardly Working gives priority to NPCs (non-playable characters), characters that normally fade into the background of video games. These are non-playable characters that populate hyper real worlds to create the appearance of normality. The artwork focuses on four different NPCs: their work becomes a pure performance, carried out for its own sake. NPCs perform so-called surrogate actions that generate no social benefit, actions performed and enforced for the sake of appearances, to ensure a social order.
NPCs are digital Sisyphus machines that have no perspective of breaking out of their activity loops. In the moments when the algorithm of their existence shows inconsistencies, the NPCs break out of the logic of total normality, display their own faultiness, and appear touchingly human. 

With DVW Metronom offers a place dedicated to the exhibition and presentation of digital art languages. The peculiar position of the video wall, which allows 24-hour use from the street front, transforms the DVW into an urban intervention, a way to redesign and change the image of the street. 

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Hardly Working | Total Refusal
METRONOM | via Carteria 10 | 41121 Modena 
From June 18, 2024 | h24
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