Exhibition duration: 17. 6. – 16. 7. 2021
Computer museum (Računalniški muzej), Celovška 111, Ljubljana
www.racunalniski-muzej.si info@racunalniski-muzej.si
Opening hours:
- Tuesday to Friday: 16h – 20h
- Saturdays: 10h – 14h
SUMMER MUSEUM NIGHT, Saturday, June 19th
- Opening hours: 16h – 20h
- VR performance S.E.N.S. VR: 19h
Free entrance.
France is a land of innovation when it comes to comics and is internationally recognized for its creative dynamism and quality of production. The French screenwriters, artists, publishers, and producers are turning to contemporary technology more and more as platforms for the creation and display of new original works. The Digital Comics exhibition displays 15 contemporary original works through a participatory and original experience on the border between comics and digital arts. The French Institute invites us to explore a new reading experience through the works of the Machines à Bulles exhibition, which showcases the richness and uniqueness of french creativity.
The Computer Museum takes it upon itself to accompany these contemporary interactive comics with a glance into the role of comics in the early computer magazines in Slovenia and the communication power of mass authorship of content in the era of niche social networks.
The visit will enable us to discover interactive comics and go beyond the usual distinction between the reader and the creator. Digital technology obscures borders between disciplines and introduces a new relationship amongst authors and audiences. New forms of storytelling and ways of reading unveil new creative perspectives and are influencing the relationships we nurture with books, print, and digital “machines”. From imagery to pixel, comics creators are constantly experimenting with new expressive formats and narration codes in all genres from fiction to documentary, from detective stories to sci-fi.
You can also experience the humorous expression of both wonder and frustration with new technology, relieving everyday tension for generations of those most exposed to this early wave digitalization.
Thanks to the relatively unexpected success of Slovene computer magazines a unique space was formed for the legendary HSnappy Family (“Mat & Fotr & Mulc & Pes & PC” literally translated into Mom & Dad & Kid & Dog & PC) by Dušan Kaselic, was first published in 1995 on the back pages of PC & mediji computer magazine. Due to a regular dose of 8 frames about a comically dysfunctional family rendered even more chaotic by the introduction of a new family member – the computer, readers of the magazine soon developed a habit of starting to read at the end, first immersing themselves into the catharsis inducing venting ground of the comics narrative.
When we enter the era of social networks in 2005, Geocities and similar ancestral remnants from the times of social neighborhoods slowly lose oxygen, only to be replaced by a Cambrian explosion of niche social networks, including Stripgenerator.com in 2007. With cleaned up black and white aesthetics and deliberate ease of use for sharing original comics, the Slovene Stripgenerator by Žiga Aljaž and 3fs attracted an online community of over 100.000 users and who generated over 1 million comics, which the social network’s users used to communicate amongst themselves, rate, comment on each other’s work. What Microsoft Comic Chat started with the comics version of IRC in 1996 now became a new era mashup of networked stories.
The exhibition is organized by the Computer museum (Računalniški muzej) and the Franch Institute in Slovenia in the context of the program of Digital November and the Year of Comics in France (20-21).
