Everything will be fine, right?

by Tactical Tech

“Everything will be fine”, right? Find out at the outdoor exhibition “Everything Will Be Fine” by Tactical Tech in co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

Living in a time of global crisis, we know what the problems are – climate change, pandemics, political polarisation – but rather than having a coordinated response, we witness ourselves getting further apart.

From the promises of artificial intelligence to the spread of conspiracy theories on social media platforms, digital technologies are seen as both a solution for our crisis and also as the root cause. But, how do digital technologies change our response, the control mechanisms we put in place to mitigate crises and the futures we imagine?

The outdoor exhibition “Everything Will Be Fine” invites visitors to take a self-chosen path to explore these and other questions critically and proactively.

The exhibition is hosted in a unique outdoor inflatable structure designed by Czech architects Kogaa and is complemented by a hybrid experience that visitors can access on their mobile phones. Exhibition hosts will be on-hand to provide further information and answer questions.

Five facts about the exhibition “Everything will be fine”:

1. “Everything Will Be Fine”: Between comfort and doubt

“Everything Will Be Fine” is a worldwide popular phrase. Regardless of the language, this expression is often used as an attempt by people to comfort themselves and others in times of hardship.

“Everything Will Be Fine” starts a conversation that involves both feelings of comfort and doubt around the trust we place in technology. Will everything really be fine? Will technology help us fix the current challenges, or will it exacerbate them?

Whatever the answers to these questions are, the exhibition invites people to think about these matters from a critical but, at the same time, proactive point of view.

2. A public intervention that is accessible to everyone

Tactical Tech and HAU bring the “Everything Will Be Fine” experience to the street, a public space without barriers where an interested audience, curious people, and passersby can freely enter and interact with the different elements.

Tactical Tech’s exhibitions are performative by nature: cites of gathering, interaction and reflection. Spaces where the audience themselves are integral to the experience. Tactical Tech’s exhibitions utilise the format of museum display experiences but intentionally challenge traditional cultural experiences: blurring the lines between viewer and participant.

3. A journey of self-reflection: Digital panic, care, doubt and hope

Now, more than ever, technology is critical in crises. “Everything Will Be Fine” fills an existing gap in the conversation about the role technologies play in a crisis, from people’s perceptions and reactions to a crisis, through to the solutions we seek and the futures we imagine.

The exhibition journey stars in the ‘outer ring’ that displays images representing the work of artists worldwide, including Paolo Cirio, Marjolijn Dijkman, Disnovation.org, Olalekan Jeyifous, Vladan Joler, Egor Kraft, Agnieszka Kurant, Sybille Neumeyer, Liam Young, and more.

The artists explore the use of technologies like AI, machine learning, satellite, drone and thermal images in response to crisis. Sometimes playful, sometimes provocative, they interrogate and question the hopes and fears played out in human responses to today’s most pressing topics.

4. From surveillance and influence to fantasy futures

The exhibition journey continues in the ‘inner ring’. Entering a space for learning and reflection where different perspectives are presented, and audiences can connect with issues they are interested in.
Here, through the work of artists, researchers and technologists, they can dig deeper into themes, including how our everyday digital tools are used to influence us in a crisis, surveillance in the city, alternative technological solutions and fantasy futures. Each of the panels highlighting different questions and building on the themes raised in the images of artworks on the outside.

5. A hybrid experience: A loop of interaction and engagement

The online hybrid component of the exhibition can be viewed by people at the exhibition on phones or tablets, reflecting how we, as audiences, increasingly visit new places (looking them up on our phones and sharing them with friends elsewhere) and bringing to life an image-based outdoor exhibition.

Visitors can look directly at the work of featured researchers, technologists and artists – including short films, guides and interactive pieces — adding another layer to the exhibition. The hybrid experience allows people to share pieces with friends or to save and take them home when they leave.

About the curators

The exhibition is co-curated by Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszynski in collaboration with Christy Lange and Katerina Gnafaki.
The exhibition is produced by Tactical Tech and its team, an award-winning international non-profit that creates bold and forward-looking experiences and educational interventions that invite people to think and reflect critically about their relationship with technology and how it changes the world they live in. Tactical Tech created the popular touring exhibition, “The Glass Room,” now shown in over 50 countries.