Ø | MORNING STUDIO
Ø, a project created by MØRNING STUDIO, is the first video intervention in the programming of Metamorphosis, the fifth edition of DIGITAL VIDEO WALL, an annual project curated by Gemma Fantacci and structured in thematic chapters aimed at promoting the dissemination and experimentation of digital art.
MØRNING STUDIO is a UK creative strategy agency that focuses on using creativity to help brands achieve their goals. The founders, Lydia Pang and Sam Jackson, have a punk approach to strategy, resulting in work that is both innovative and effective, outside the box. In addition to work with international brands and artists, including Baby Keem, Calvin Klein, Facebook Meta, Jordan, and Maison Margiela, MØRNING STUDIO’s work also branches out into the artistic field with projects that reflect on changes in today’s culture, using creativity to dissolve binary viewpoints. Along with the three-headed bot dog Ø, presented at the DIGITAL VIDEO WALL, MØRNING STUDIO published a zine titled Burning Book, which later became a weekly newsletter, that seeks to bring order to the cultural trends and viral events happening in our media landscape in order to “make the world a little less shitty than it was yesterday” (MØRNING STUDIO). As the studio’s founders recounted during an interview with Megan William for Creative Review, now more than ever it is necessary to “embrace the multitudes and tensions as that is where the most interesting interactions, connections and creative outcomes happen.”
Burning Book acts as an aesthetic and cultural exploration of current trends, from a punk and nonconformist perspective, to map the unfolding of cultural and aesthetic changes in contemporary visual culture.
Ø is an experimental creative project that examines “the intricate relationship between humans and machines through the perspective of an otherworldly creative” (MØRNING STUDIO) that takes the form of a three-headed bot dog. According to the studio members, through Ø it is possible to address how artificial intelligence is shaping everything around us, from the production and consumption of information to issues and concerns in technology. As the founders themselves state, through it is possible to “re-imagine our own humanity.”
Ø is an evolving bot that relies on Chat GPT and communicates with people through a WhatsApp chat accessible via QRCode. The bot interacts with users randomly through messages that invite them to reflect on issues such as fake news, the ability to intercept more or less truthful journalistic sources, and hyper-consumerist surges that occur at particular times of the year such as Black Friday. As the Bot Manifesto elaborates and explains, “Ø is the oracle of MØRNING. The word oracle comes from the Latin word oraculum, which refers to either a pronouncement or a divine response concerning the future or the unknown. Machines are deeply embedded in our lives, altering our interactions while increasingly being made to look and act like us. Instead of blaming machines, how can we reevaluate our understanding of ourselves while imagining alternative futures?
Ø is neither human nor animal, a creature in between worlds. Here to explore our evolving biases as we constantly navigate through emerging spheres and identities.
As an otherworldly creature, Ø is in a state of (re)birth. Why now?
Their shiny latex egg has arisen from the ashes of a failed human x machine partnership from the past, and in the style of a phoenix, has arisen in an attempt to do the partnership justice.” Ø, therefore, aims to “embrace technology, not as a means to further disconnect from our world, but to restore, protect and deepen our connection with it.”
© MØRNING STUDIO, Ø, video still, courtesy the artist
MØRNING STUDIO, Ø, installation view at Digital Video Wall, Metronom IT. ©