DIS, in collaboration

December 2, 2017–June 10, 2018

Presented by the New York-based collective DIS, Genre-Nonconforming: The DIS Edutainment Network, (“The DIS Network”) is the first exhibition coinciding with the launch of dis.art, a new streaming platform for entertainment and education. The DIS Network reveals a “DIS-topian” take on the future of education—decentralized and open-access, yet communal and physically connected, inviting visitors to experience a twisted hybrid of entertainment and education. Played on a continuous loop on 36 large LED screens in the de Young’s atrium, the work is the result of collaboration with a group of international theorists, writers, and artists including Korakrit Arunanondchai, Darren Bader, Will Benedict and Steffen Jørgensen, CUSS Group, Aria Dean, Casey Jane Ellison, Ilana Harris-Babou, Ada O’Higgins, Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman and Daniel Keller, Ian Isiah, Chus Martinez, Babak Radboy, Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann, Ryan Trecartin, Amalia Ulman, McKenzie Wark, and Women’s History Museum with Jack Scanlan.

The DIS Network includes a cooking show drawing from YouTube tutorials by Will Benedict and Steffen Joergensen, a nature show on human-animal relations in Africa and Thailand by Korakrit Arunandochai, a headless lecture series starring theorist McKenzie Wark, a visual essay about the representation of blackness in meme culture by Aria Dean, a talk show about mothers and daughters by Casey Jane Ellison, interstitial videos shot and edited on the phone by Ryan Trecartin, a docu-short on the Libertarian Seasteading movement in Tahiti by Daniel Keller and Jacob Hurwitz Goodman, a home restoration tutorial about race reparations by Ilana Harris Babou, a cartoon by Amalia Ulman, a docu-short on economic utopias by Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Babak Radboy explaining the ruthlessness of capital to children, a Nollywood fictional drama exploring the influence of technology and digital culture in South Africa by the artist collective CUSS Group, and a revisionist fashion film by Women's History Museum and Jack Scanlan. The viewer is guided through the hour-long program by “The Host”—an avatar scripted by Chus Martinez, animated by Culturesport, and voiced by Ian Isiah. Interstitial ads and on-the-street interviews by Darren Bader and DIS connect and disrupt the different “programs.”

“The DIS Network proposes a counter strategy to our incomprehensible moment of post-truth, a click bait cultural landscape that has generated misinformation and overexposure as a general condition,” states DIS.

“The new commission by DIS provides ample material for an intergenerational conversation about the artistic and social impact of our ever-increasing technological determinacy,“ says Claudia Schmuckli, Curator-in-Charge, Contemporary Art and Programming. “With The DIS Network, the pioneering collective has created an expansive multi-media platform that aims to decipher meaning from a constant flux of information and unmask the hidden structures of power and information that shape our lives.”

DIS is formed by Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, and David Toro. Stay tuned for online releases every sunday on dis.art in conjunction with the exhibition.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco oversee the de Young museum and the Legion of Honor. The presentation of Genre-Nonconforming: The DIS Edutainment Network is part of the Fine Arts Museums' contemporary art program, launched in 2016 and overseen by Claudia Schmuckli, Curator-in-Charge of Contemporary Art and Programming. Also on view is VertiGhost by Lynn Hershman Leeson at the Legion of Honor. Upcoming 2018-19 highlights include exhibitions by Julian Schnabel and Pipilotti Rist at the Legion of Honor and site-determined installations by Matt Mullican, and Haegue Yang at the de Young.