This workshop invites participants to spend some offline time reflecting on labor in the AI era by drawing and producing a postcard as a piece of asynchronous physical media. Participants will draw a phone, laptop, device, or screenshot that is significant to their work as an artist, technologist, writer, or digital laborer. Drawing serves as a meditation: what labor is contained in our devices? What memories do our digital devices hold? How can we visually represent our labor and memories in our rendering of the device?

Together, we’ll reflect on these questions as we sketch a personal device or digital artifact to reflect on its form, textures, and significance in our lives. Our drawings will become the images for handmade postcards. To conclude the workshop, participants will write a letter to a friend or collaborator reflecting on their experiences and we’ll address and send the postcards.

Introductory

Participants are encouraged to bring an obsolescent or broken device to use as inspiration—or digital artifact such as a screenshot.

Kate Hollenbach is an artist, programmer, and educator based in San Francisco, California. She creates video and interactive works examining critical issues in user interface and user experience design, with a focus on user habits, data collection, and surveillance. She has taught creative coding and media arts as an Assistant Professor of Emergent Digital Practices at University of Denver and as a Professional Lecturer at DePaul University. She has presented and exhibited work in venues across the United States, including SFMOMA, SIGGRAPH, and INST-INT. Kate is currently Education Director at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.