NXS #5: Virtual Vertigo

Issue #5 of NXS—Virtual Vertigo—examines the challenges posed to the self by the digital extension of reality and its murky underbelly. Distractedly chatting over FaceTime while its Attention Correction function redirects your eyes' focus to the camera, to talking on the phone with eerily human-sounding virtual assistants, or watching deep fake videos with convincingly-crafted celebrity simulations presenting us invented statements, are digitally-mediated interactions that undermine our trust in our senses to access reality. In this issue, the manifold network of NXS contributors investigates questions such as: What emotional responses might a computer-communicated reality precipitate? How is user behavior influenced upon returning to the physical world from those layers of lifelike experience? Which ethical pillars should be kept high? And are we able to restore our understanding of the structure of reality or adopt a new form that can resist manipulation? NXS is a research platform initiated by the Amsterdam based design studio Goys & Birls as well as an experimental printed publication, where each contributor comments and reflects on a previous contribution. The fifth issue includes contributions from Manuel Arturo Abreu, Giusy Amoroso, Galit Ariel, Ash Baccus-Clark, Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, BEA1991, Karolien Buurman, Amber Case, Harriet Davey, Daphne Dragona, Mat Dryhurst, Friederike Hantel, Holly Herndon, Bailey Keogh, Baptiste Kucharski, Kim Laughton, Sean Mahoney, Shawn Maximo, Florian Mecklenburg, Katja Novitskova, Omega.C, Fr. Bertie Pearson, Douglas Rushkoff, Tamar Shafrir, Dan Stout, Miro Tiebe, and Belinda Zhawi. Published biannually, NXS experiments with innovative content and brings together different points of view. A diverse selection of upcoming or established theorists and practitioners allows NXS to define an initial position and interlace articles, essays, interviews and artistic works which refer to each other. Aiming to explore the emotional and sensual side of hardware, software, and algorithms, that normally have been assessed by their functionality, aesthetics, and ethics, NXS invites artists, theorists, poets, and off-context cultural participators to capture the current emotional status of networked society and hardware-enhanced relationships. Curated, edited and designed by Karolien Buurman, Monika Grūzīte, and Florian Mecklenburg Published by Goys & Birls, 2020 Printed in an edition of 500 copies Softcover, 60 pages, full color and b&w, 5 × 13.5 inches ISBN: 978-90-828571-1-5