Bérénice Serra

French media artist and researcher based in Zürich (CH). Her artworks and writings explore the dynamics of production and dissemination of user-generated content, focusing on the acts of making things public in the age of post-digital networks.

Her projects can be web-to-print books, installations, digital drawings, web based projects, interventions and performances. She releases most of her work under open source and creative commons licences.

She is currently Guest Professor at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW.


artworks biography and cv

hello@bereniceserra.com

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Sunsettings, 11.2023, solo exhibition, Volumes Zürich, Zentralwäscherei, Zürich, CH.
Room Tour. Art in the Age of Remote Work, 11.2023, The Wrong Biennale, online, IN.
Des Clous, 10.2023, group exhibition, Les Arceaux, Montpellier, FR.
Customs, 06.2023, group exhibition, XXIIIe congrès de la SFSIC, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, FR

Sunsettings
Zentralwäscherei, Zürich, CH
2023







Sunsettings is both an installation and a zine that explores the history of solar theories in relation to their latest development in our connected world. From Eratosthenes to software used in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) for geolocating images, Sunsettings offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the sun's role in information and knowledge production.

Room Tour
The Wrong Biennale, online
2023





Room Tour. Art in the Age of Remote Work, feating my work CUSTOMS, curated by Vincent Duché and Faustine de Bock.

Room tour. Art in the age of remote work is an online exhibition inspired by the “room tour” trend on YouTube, which consists of sharing and commenting on the personal space. This exhibition takes place in the curator’s bedroom. It shows works that question the mediation of the domestic space on the internet from various points of view and various social, cultural and political perspectives. — Vincent Duché

Publication Tactique
Open access publication
2023





berenice-serra.com/publication-tactique/

This work presents a documentation of the research conducted by Bérénice Serra between 2018-2021, along with exchanges with the socio-anthropologist specializing in digital culture and media-hacktivism, Jean-Paul Fourmentraux, the director of Espace multimédia Gantner, Valérie Perrin, and the coordinator of Oblique/s and member of HACNUM, Luc Brou.

Tactical Publishing
Artist talk, IDCE, Basel, CH
2022





Watch the video (ENG)

Tactical Publishing is a practice-led research project that has been conducted over four years at the National School of Fine Arts in Lyon. It focuses on the implications of digital devices in users' daily publishing practices.

Customs
Database, suitcases, performance
2020-2022



Customs is an image bank curated since 2020 through a unique protocol. Personal data, including names, first names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, is manually collected outside of digital channels. This information is gathered from luggage tags attached to suitcases left on trains that the artist regularly travels on between France and Switzerland. Through this method, passengers are approached and invited to initiate a conversation that may lead to the exchange of multimedia content: videos, images, and sometimes even audio recordings.

Pupilles
Perfomance, Le Bel Ordinaire, Pau, FR
2022





'Pupilles' is lecture performance and the conclusion of a four-year research project conducted at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. The performance questions the modes of conception, production, and exchange of cultural forms in the digital age, with a particular emphasis on the notion of publication.

Metametaprogram
Interactive narrative
2022







thingsnonthings.space

Metametaprogram is an interactive narrative inspired by Vilém Flusser’s The Non-Thing 1 and The Non-Thing 2, published as part of the series 'A throw of the dice' curated by Delphine Chapuis Schmitz for the project 'There's something wrong with my hands. Oh yes, they're not holding you.'

Ambivalences : les mutations du vivant
Artist talk, ]interstice[, Caen, FR
2022



Watch the video (FR)

This conference tells the beginnings of an artistic project exploring the possibility of creating autonomous networks whose access would be conditioned by a plant actor. The artist revisits two parallel stories: the development of the Internet infrastructure and the stories of bottle gardens and transatlantic plant voyages in the 1970s.

Tradescantia
Self-hosted website, chlorophyll prints
2021




Image: NØ SCHOOL and Cookie Collective

Tradescantia was developed during NØ SCHOOL Nevers 2021 as a way of reflecting on self-hosting web-based artworks. This project has two components: a webpage hosted on a ESP32 (microcontroller) and a QR code which was printed with solar energy using photosynthesis. The ink is 100% chlorophyll.

ADAF — From where I stand
Katsigras Museum, Larissa, GR
2021





From where I stand is a group exhibition, feating my installation SWIPE, curated by Elli-Anna Peristeraki.

Swipe
Writing copybook designed with HTML + CSS
2020









Shortlisted for the Volumes Art Publishing Awards 2020

The SWIPE writing copybook offers a learning method for a writing system inspired by the principles of gestural input. The writing system in question regards the traces created through the use of a virtual keyboard as a distinctive writing method. The web-to-print writing copybook includes practical and poetic exercises aimed at facilitating the learning of this writing system outside its digital environment.

Swipe
Writing system, transliteration app
2019



Development: Bérénice Serra and Jacques-Daniel Pillon

Swype/Swiftkey is a virtual keyboard designed for touchscreen smartphones and tablets, enabling users to input text by sliding their finger from the initial to the final letter of a word. Employing a predictive text system, this keyboard can achieve a writing speed of 50 words per minute. The SWIPE project introduces a transliteration app that emphasizes the correlation between writing speed and language enrichment through graphic writing, recording the symbols generated with the Swype/Swiftkey keyboard. Each word consequently generates a unique symbol.

Space cheap, pop culture & science fiction
Le Shadok, Strasbourg, FR
2019






Space Cheap is a group exhibition, feating my work SWIPE, curated by Maxence Grugier.

The exhibition offers multiple perspectives on science fiction (SF). Far from reducing SF to mere "folklore", this exhibition presents artists and designers whose works dialogue with the imaginary of science fiction by tracing a more or less utopian future. The event includes artworks and texts by Damien Baïs, Thomas Barbé, Alain Barthélémy, Ophélie Demurger, Alix Desaubliaux, Pierrick Faure, Valentin Godard, Martin Guillaumie, Jérémie Nuel, Bérénice Serra, Maeva Borg, Alexandre Lefebvre, Claire Malot and Nicolas Nova. — Maxence Grugier

After social networks
Artist talk, ENSAD, Paris, FR
2019



Watch the video (FR)

This conference explores the possibilities of circulating anonymous portraits found on smartphones in electronic stores. It discusses the ecology of user-generated content, the evolution of rights related to the manipulation of these images, and the opportunities opened up by open licenses.

Ars Electronica — Valis
Post City, Linz, AU
2019



Valis is a group exhibition, feating my work SWIPE.

Autonomie Zéro
Biennale Némo, Cité internationale des arts, Paris, FR
2019





Autonomie Zéro is a group exhibition, feating my work RESIDENCE, curated by Dominique Moulon and Gilles Alvarez.

Autonomie Zéro aims to put the human back into the machine as well as to reveal the importance of the decisions or intuitions that are ours and will probably remain ours for a long time to come. Algorithms, we are told, are likely to learn by themselves if they are stimulated. It is precisely this vital stimulation that we aim to explore here, closely examining it through the works of artists in connection with the technical devices they use to create together. — Dominique Moulon & Gilles Alvarez

Residence
Booklet, open access
2019






berenice-serra.com/residence

RESIDENCE, created by Bérénice Serra, is a digital exhibition format accessible to everyone. Following the model of artistic residencies, RESIDENCE invites unique works in an online residency program, accessible 24/7. The inaugural catalog, produced in collaboration with Stereo Buro, was printed in March 2019, with 500 copies.

Art Mobile
Fonds d'art moderne et contemporain
Montluçon, FR
2018





Art Mobile is a group exhibition, feating my work RESIDENCE, curated by Marie-Laure Desjardins.

The smartphone, just 12 years old, is now used by billions of people, radically transforming the habits of many, including some artists. Some criticize or question its impact, while others use it as a tool to create and disseminate new forms of art. — Marie-Laure Desjardins

Residence
Google Street View interventions, website
2018









berenice-serra.com/residence

RESIDENCE allows anyone to download, modify and upload 360 views inside Google Street View. It relies on the Street View app for smartphone, which allows any user to augment the online visual cartography. This tool, initially released to skirt the responsibility of the American company towards the published contents - by applying a copyright on the images taken by the users — opens a creative breach in its use. The photos are not subject to any moderation by Google and will only be removed if an "undesirable content" is reported by other users. Embracing the opportunities for detour given by the very functioning of the publication tool, this project includes the participation of Marion Balac, Raphaël Fabre, Arzhel Prioul, Seitoung, Bérénice Serra, Julien Toulze and Mathieu Tremblin. The works are visible online by all users of Google Street View.

UR numérique
Réfectoire des nonnes, Lyon, FR
2017



Group exhibition, feating my work PUBLIC, curated by David-Olivier Lartigaud. Image: © Kevin Ardito

Public
Newspaper, 289x380mm
2017





Collection: FRAC Normandie Rouen, acquisition 2021

The free newspaper displays portraits from the PUBLIC project. The goal is to rethink how these user-generated images circulate and are distributed. Distributed in public places, the newspaper brings up issues tied to the history of portraiture, especially in the age of facial recognition algorithms.

Galerie
Performance, offline exhibition
2016







Watch the video

Galerie was performed on October 22, 2016 at the FNAC store — Champs-Élysées in Paris.
The perfomance consisted in the staging of a group exhibition hijacking smartphones in electronics stores, employing a strategy of retail poisoning. The collaborative effort included the contributions of Julien Nédelec, Benoît Pype, Eric Watier, Guillaume Viaud, Selma Lepart, and Michaël Sellam.

Public
Collection of anonymous portraits
2014-2017






In electronics stores all over the world, smartphones are on display for potential buyers. Affixed to the furniture, these arranged and tilted objects cease to be merely "mobile" or "personal." Despite their fixed positions, all the core functionalities inherent to smartphones remain operational: note-taking, calendar, contacts, camera, clock, etc. Certain visitors activate the camera during their exploration, typically using the front-facing one by default. And, once a shot is taken, the image is automatically stored in the phone's image gallery without any manual intervention. Since 2014, the PUBLIC project has been dedicated to collecting the portraits captured on these phones.

Petipeu étalon
Sculpture, cast silver
2014






Finalist of the Marc Charras — Creation & Invention Prize 2015

Today, all scales can be measured between the index and the thumb, using the pinch-to-zoom gesture. But, before the rise of digital tools, the only measure fitting between the index finger and the thumb was a qualitative one expressed as "just a little bit." This sculpture establishes a unique measure for the gesture commonly associated with this expression, presenting it as a standard made of silver.

A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N
Biennale Internationale Design
Saint-Étienne, FR
2015



A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N is a group exhibition, feating my work PETIPEU ÉTALON, curated by David-Olivier Lartigaud and Samuel Vermeil. Image: ©Aldo Paredes

And if in the context of our digital society, where we delegate attention to machines to extract meaning from the billions of data generated on a daily basis, human attention has retained its value to the extent that it is at the heart of an "economy" that is constantly being redefined, ranging from the concentrated user (playing a video game or using software, for example) to young social media users who have become adept at multi-tasking. All the more reason to question how we develop, from an ethical, structural and aesthetic point view, the objects and environment that make up our daily, connected world. — Samuel Vermeil