#metttafestival – Who are we on social media (October 1-2)

“Who are we on social media” – The German culture center Goethe Institut Tokyo partnered with Tokyo College to explore this question in a hybrid festival that will take place on October 1&2 at the art space BUoY in Tokyo’s Kitasenju district. It will bring together academic and artistic positions. Large parts of the symposium will be broadcast with the support of other Goethe-Instituts in East Asia and South East Asia to enable cross-regional participation.

Researchers from Tokyo College will present current research on identity topics in dense, entertaining formats and relate these to interviews produced for an Instagram project called metttazzzine as well as to the artistic contributions on site. The opening talk will set the framework for the festival by illuminating how identities are created through narrative processes on digital platforms.

The artistic contributions under the curatorial direction of aliwen muñoz enrich the reflection of digital identities and transnational experiences with further facets. Among other things, performances will be shown that question the mechanisms of self-representation in dating apps. An interactive algorithm installation uses word clouds to trace the individuality of our language about identity. And in the works of modern Japanese painting, reminiscent of the body cult of influencers, the screens of smartphones are substituting the historic gold leaf adornments…

Tickets, The full program, and the list of participating scholars and artists will be available from Sep 1.

Tickets: https://goethe-tokyo.peatix.com/#

Project Website at Goethe Institut: https://www.goethe.de/ins/jp/en/kul/sup/mtz.html