Marie Verdeil: rethinking technology in the light of its limits

French designer and artist based in Brussels, Marie Verdeil claims a transdisciplinary practice, at the crossroads of graphic design, pedagogy and technological research. Since her training at the Design Academy Eindhoven, she has explored digital uses from a critical angle, mindful of their ecological and social impacts.

Her work takes the form of installations, websites, publications and self-construction guides. She works closely with Low-tech Magazine, a media pioneering the questioning of technological promises, for which she is artistic director. Together, with Kris De Decker, they design low-tech prototypes and run practical workshops that invite us to think differently about our relationship with energy, materials and innovation.

Attached to free software and thrifty digital practices, she also develops sober websites, participating in a wider reflection on digital infrastructures, their opacity and their footprint. Her projects have been exhibited and hosted in residence at several European institutions, from FabLab Barcelona to Amsterdam's Fiber Festival.

Dasha Ilina: a playful, engaged critique of techno-addiction

A Russian artist based in Paris, Dasha Ilina's work is deeply rooted in a critique of contemporary technological uses. Through a playful, DIY (Do It Yourself) approach, her work questions the desire to incorporate modern technology into our daily lives.

Founder of the Center for Technological Pain, she imagines handcrafted devices to alleviate the pain caused by our digital uses: mechanical eye screens that reduce eyestrain, a headset that frees the user's hands, and a box against insomnia. A project that has been awarded by Ars Electronica.

She continues this reflection in other projects such as Technosommeil, where she questions sleep in the digital age, or through NØ SCHOOL, an alternative summer school she co-directs, dedicated to the environmental and social impacts of information technologies. Her work has been presented in major venues such as the Gaîté Lyrique, the Centre Pompidou, the Hartware MedienKunstVerein in Dortmund and IMPAKT in Utrecht.

A residency to reflect on alternatives to current energy models

Together for their residency, the two artists are developing a joint project at the crossroads of their concerns: a critical look at the place of technology in our societies, coupled with a commitment to autonomous, accessible and sustainable practices. Between the workspaces of iMAL in Brussels, a mecca for digital creation, and those of Antre Peaux in Bourges, a European-scale cultural wasteland, their residency encourages the sharing of experience, knowledge and practices.

In their project, Marie Verdeil and Dasha Ilina will discuss alternatives to current energy models, while trying to make energy more tangible through playful exercises and DIY prototypes that will remind us what a watt is. Batteries have become a ubiquitous means of storing energy. From TV remote controls to smartphones and now electric cars, batteries of different types, sizes and chemical compositions power many of the devices we use every day. In recent years, they have also become an essential part of the transition to a sustainable future. But is a battery-powered society really sustainable? When it comes to electric vehicles, for example, their production alone involves the use of fossil fuels to extract the raw materials, which further increases CO2 emissions and leads to other types of mining-related destruction, as Kohei Saito explains to us in his book Slow Down.

During the workshop they led in September at the end of their first month of residency at iMAL, participants first attended the Battery Academy to collectively explore the history of batteries, discuss their challenges and shortcomings, and make their own batteries. They then joined the Permacomputing Tesla Factory to discover what alternative modes of transportation can be imagined with lemons, salt water and old alkaline batteries.

In a world increasingly shaped by injunctions to innovate, Marie Verdeil and Dasha Ilina's residency proposes another path: that of a technology that is situated, critical, and turned towards the care of bodies, communities and ecosystems.

RÉSIDENCES EXTRA is a project of the French Embassy in Belgium, in partnership with the Alliance Française Bruxelles-Europe and the Institut français in Paris as part of the Fabrique des résidences program, joining some 50 residencies in nearly 30 countries worldwide. It is supported by Fonds France Belgique and Wallonie-Bruxelles International for the French component of the cross-residencies.