Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 73

Figure 6. Istabraq Emad Al Naiar (����): “Autopsy”.
the online platform provided by the website represents a space that is still
reliant on a server, a data center and physical media artifacts (computers,
mobile devices, cameras, etc.) for its own functioning and its ability to be
populated by content and material. This also relates, as discussed earlier, to
issues regarding digital access and equity, the kind of governance systems
and policies in place that either allow or restrict the material conditions
under which participants are enabled (or not) to have access and contribute
to the project. As such, Autopoiesis, like many other digital initiatives, is a
project that is continually oscillating between the global and the local, the
virtual and the physical, the digital and the material.
The Virtual Physical: Autopoiesis 2.0 exhibition
In October ����, a related live exhibition under the name Autopoiesis 2.0 was
held as part of the Arts and Humanities Festival at King’s College London.
While the online exhibition space of Autopoiesis aimed to capture and create
a multivocal environment for cultural expression, the physical space of the
exhibition sought to provide the viewer with a “window” into this space
through the display of artworks that have been submitted to Autopoiesis.
Instead of exhibiting the “physical” prints or embodiments of these
artworks, Autopoiesis 2.0 carried over the notion and practice of the digital
into the physical space of the exhibition by opting for the digital projection
of artworks through multiple large screens, invoking a similar experience
72