Portfolio of curated public events: Post-Digital Frontiers (3 works)

Background: This research was informed by Afrofuturist art practices and digital folklore. Following Gabriel de Seta’s (2019) definition of digital folklore, this research “cuts across the field of Internet research in the broadest disciplinary terms, existing at the crossroads of anthropology and folkloristics, media and cultural studies, aesthetics and design, art history and communication studies”. An examination of artistic countercultural practices revealed new levels of inequalities in techno-utopian imaginaries. Contribution: Mauro-Flude curated three events featuring established and emerging artistic researchers, exploring their aesthetic take on artmaking from digital folklore perspectives. The series was a unique program of conversations, film screenings, performances and live-stream broadcasts that examined critical frontiers and legacies of contact between Pacifica, Africa and Europe. Significance: The works claim ‘a new take on Afrofuturism,’ as articulated by Akomfrah and Eshun (2019) and referred to in ‘The Secessionist Manifestos of Certain Received Wisdom’ published by Verlag and subsequently in Frieze Magazine (2020). They were also referred to by Graham et.al (2018) in an article in ‘East Asian Science, Technology and Society’ journal. They were endorsed by high-profile practitioners Danja Vasiliev (Ars Electronica award winner) and Tan Pin Pin (acclaimed filmmaker). Mauro-Flude was also invited to give a keynote lecture at ArtScience Museum (Singapore).