Soft Nails ~ ♥[ASMR] Kleincomputer Robotron KC87 ♥ | A Video Screening by Nadja Buttendorf

Plug In ICA is screening Soft Nails ~ ♥[ASMR] Kleincomputer Robotron KC87 ♥ by Nadja Buttendorf  in our Breezeway as part of  Labour of Love: On Digital Economies in the Arts, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops. The video will be on display until March 6, 2020.

The KC stands for Kleincomputer, in English, literally small computer. Released in 1987 in the GDR by VEB Robotron-Meßelektronik”Otto Schön” Dresden. Originally, the KC 87 was intended as a home computer (HC) for private households. Due to a lack of resources, however, the KC87 was only in use as an educational computer in educational institutions.

ASMR, Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is a net cultural form of physical stimulation through whispering and soft sounds that has developed and spread on the largest online platform YouTube. The listeners and viewers find the tingling on the skin, triggered by those very soft noises, very pleasant. The sight of bent fingernails, on the other hand, is often perceived as unpleasant. In Soft Nails, artificial fingernails made of silicone reinforce the viewer’s reaction. The typical noises of ASMR videos are complemented by this visually irritating stimulus.

Throughout the video, Buttendorf whispers the information about the KC87.  In most ASMR videos only current high-tech utensils appear to evoke tingles. In Soft Nails, Buttendorf deliberately uses high-tech from the GDR and transforms it into a pop cultural format. This video work is a satellite project for the web series Robotron – a tech opera.