“ATTENTION IS ALL I NEED” Online Exhibition & Workshops by OnCurating x HEK
ATTENTION IS ALL I NEED. Self-Representation as Curatorial Practice.
Online Exhibition and Workshops curated by Jonny-Bix Bongers and organized by OnCurating x HEK, Basel
Exhibition Dates: 4. April–30. May 2025
Curated by: Jonny-Bix Bongers
About the exhibition:
In the digital world, we are constantly recreating ourselves—a theater where everyone simultaneously is a director, performer, and spectator. From professionally curated social media profiles to imaginative avatars in video games, the ways we present ourselves reflect the shifting boundaries of identity and the evolving relationship between technology and selfhood in our time.
The digital stage opens up countless possibilities to explore self-conception. Self-avatars allow us to transcend physical boundaries, offering new perspectives on whom we can be. Online, the self becomes fluid and plural, enabling us to challenge rigid notions of gender, sexuality, and race. These spaces encourage us to imagine individuality and selfhood beyond fixed, singular definitions.
Yet, this play is not without tension. As the boundaries of identity dissolve, our self becomes interconnected with the conditions of the platforms hosting them. Tech companies collect massive amounts of data, using algorithms to predict and shape our desires. In this context, our digital selves are under pressure, transformed into products that must constantly be evaluated and optimized to fit platform logic.
To shift the emphasis from a purely narcissistic perspective to questions of connection and participation, the project will offer entry points into different cultural contexts and local realities. These diverse approaches explore how digital self-representation intersects with global identities, fostering dialogue across cities and countries.
“Attention is all I need” faces these challenges and brings together perspectives from young media artists to explore this delicate balance between utopian freedom and the overwhelming demands of contemporary digital culture. This exhibition invites visitors into a world of collective deepfakes, AI karaoke, and augmented reality avatars, revealing how digital self-representation becomes a forward-looking artistic practice.
Curated by Jonny-Bix Bongers
Virtual Design: Yun Kuo
Artistic Contributions:
- Damjanski
- Charmaine Poh
Workshops:
1. “The Self as a Data Trace” by Kim Albrecht
March 8th, 2 pm – 6 pm CET
Price: 150€
Sign up here until March 7th
While the self is an elusive and fragile construct, in the digital realm, it is rendered into rows and columns—nominal, ordinal, and numerical data points—traced by every mouse movement, click, gaze, and post.
This workshop investigates the self as a data trace, exploring how data conglomerates, data brokers, and social media algorithms shape our digital identities. We will contrast these technological perspectives with artistic positions, counter-mappings and investigative approaches that expose the backstage operations of the digital self.
Participants will confront both the strangeness and the banality of corporate categorizations designed for profit, observe the algorithmic politics that dictate attention and erasure, and critically engage with modes of resistance. Through discussion and mapping, we will explore ways to navigate, challenge, and reflect on the datafied self in contrast to the more ambiguous and fluid notion of selfhood that resists definition.
Kim Albrecht
Kim Albrecht conducts research at the intersection of data visualization, technology, and culture. He holds a BA in Graphic Design, an MA in Interface Design, and a Ph.D. in Media Theory. Albrecht’s professional journey includes roles such as researcher at the Center for Complex Network Research with Prof. Laszlo Barabasi, Principal at metaLAB (at) Harvard with Jeffrey Schnapp, Faculty Associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Professor at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf from 2023 to 2024. Since 2025, he has served as Professor of Information Design at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. Known for his exploration of the aesthetic properties of data, his work spans teaching, research, and application.
2. “Inquiring a Digital Self” By Allapopp
March 15th, 2 pm – 6 pm CET
Price: 150€
Sign up here until March 14th
In this 4-hour multimedia online workshop, which is part of the cooperation between hek Basel and OnCurating Academy Berlin, participants will critically explore self-representation in the digital realm by creating new avatars and digital personas using generative AI tools. Through collaborative reflection and hands-on practice, participants will examine the aesthetics, attributes, and ethics of digital self-representation while producing a hybrid visual and text-based essay narrated by their avatars.
This workshop emphasizes a process-oriented approach to digital storytelling and creative production. Participants will engage with concepts such as gaze, the socio-political futures of digital personas, the relationship between digital and physical bodies, and the reciprocal influence of avatars and narratives in the digital realm. Through collaborative inquiry, participants will examine their own avatars and digital personas as both objects and subjects, critically exploring their potential as doorways to understanding the self in the digital age.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have developed a deeper understanding of digital identity and produced a hybrid creative essay synthesizing visual and textual elements, grounded in collectively curated contextual inquiry.
allapop
allapopp is a Berlin-based interdisciplinary digital media and performance artist, originally from Tatarstan in Russia. allapopp’s work fuses post-soviet, mixed Tatar, queer, and migrant experiences with tech-inclusive envisioning, performance, and digital art. Formally working within the domains of performance, media and sound, research, storytelling, machine learning, and interactive live phygital formats and experiences in XR and the web, allapopp’s practice is directed toward fostering new worlds and visions as sources of inspiration and pathways to self-determination. allapopp has trained and practiced art in Germany, across the EU, China, Rwanda, Japan, and the USA. They are the co-founder of the TATAR KYZ:LAR and BBB_ music projects and a member of the dgtlfmnsm collective.
3. “Dragging the Self: Phantasizing through drag, dreaming with deepfakes” by Orhun Mersin, aka Kekik
March 22nd, 2 pm – 6 pm CET
Price: 150€
Sign up here until March 21st
In this workshop, Orhun Mersin, aka Kekik—a Berlin-based drag artist and AI researcher—will explore the intersections of self-representation, technology, and performance. As a member of the research platform New Practice in Art & Technology, and with a background in contemporary dance and computer science, Orhun’s work blends artistic and academic perspectives, using phantasy as a methodological tool to investigate identity and transformation in contemporary digital culture.
Drag and deepfakes share a common thread: both employ methods of appropriation to reimagine and subvert reality. The workshop will engage with Orhun’s queer-feminist research, which draws parallels between these practices. Through hands-on experimentation with a “curious queer-use” of deepfake technologies, participants will embark on a personal journey, playfully reappropriating their dreams. No technical experience is necessary— just a good dose of curiosity is all you need.