interview Annet Dekker/Gretchen Andrew

[permanent beta]

Research Lab and Online Platform

[permanent beta] is an online platform focused on algorithmic and networked image cultures and the social and political impact they have. The platform brings together contributions from curators, artists and scholars presented in the form of audiovisual and performative explorations, podcasts, essays and dialogic formats. The collective research process centres on a particular theme for a period of two to three years, culminating in an exhibition and publication. Running under the title The Lure of the Image, [permanent beta]’s focus until 2025 will be on the affective and seductive power of the image: it will explore how images serve to ensnare, entice, control, allure or beguile us.

[permanent beta] maintains Fotomuseum Winterthur’s focus on the digital and networked image, while also lifting the lid on curatorial (research) processes. Visitors and users are afforded an all-round view of the theme in question and gain an insight into the museum’s research work and the process of realising an exhibition. In addition, they can play an active role by taking part, for example, in the fortnightly meetings of the museum’s curatorial team.

The Conversational Series

This series presents chat conversations between curators, artists or theorists that take an image as its starting point. Encountered during an in-depth visual research or on a social media binge-watch, the images have attracted attention and created an urge for dialogue. Drawing on André Gunthert’s concept of the ‘image conversationnelle’, the format engages social media platforms not only for circulating images, but also for sharing thoughts and having conversations around them. It acknowledges the fact that all practices of photography have been transformed by smartphones and apps – from how we take images to how we encounter them, speak about and contexualise them.

Gretchen and Annet tactically seduce Google …