BEYOND THE FUNCTION/ VISUAL_PUNK_LTD
From Amazon to Amazin, the lifeless interface of the internet's capitalist headquarters goes on an acid trip during visual_punk_ltd's Amazin Project performance.
The Spain based multidisciplinary artist Lena Plotnikova, also known as visual_punk_ltd, uses JS scripts to turn the Amazon website upside down. The glitch aesthetics, along with the hypnotic electronic music, result in a cathartic defacing of a rigid pillar of consumerism, a beautiful blasphemy against the corporate cult.
Arguably a perfect example of Debords détournement, the project hijacks the spectacle, subverting it into an explosion of colour and human expression, far beyond the prison of function and efficiency. Lena recently performed in Bergen, under Pikselfest 25, where we were able to witness the project. The impact was lasting, so much so that we wanted to dive deeper into the mind behind the performance.
Here, Lena speaks to us of subversion from inside the machine.
By altering Amazon's interface, you turn everyday life into art. Is collapsing the boundary between life and art in itself a form of resistance?
For me this immediately raises the question of what "life" even means in this context. On the surface, Amazon purchases and the very existence of the company, feel like part of our solid "raw" everyday life. But if you look at the core of the process, it all seems like an ephemeral layer built on top of life itself, a fiction that no one genuinely needs.
I mean that I am not a function, not a purchasing function, not a work function (in the sense of my full-time job that I have alongside my art practice). I am not a consumption function, and I refuse to become one. Furthermore, I don't want us all to be reduced to functions either, even though the world (aka the system) insists otherwise.
So breaching that boundary and reclaiming a tiny fragment of the system to turn it into art, and, in my opinion, into real life in this case: into emotions, thoughts, human feelings, human doubts, joy, and even pain, that truly is an act of resistance for me. I'm searching for exit paths, small opportunities to step outside, even just for a moment, but there aren't that many.
By choosing Amazon, I'm also speaking about the entire capitalist machinery that fills our lives with unnecessary functions and fake desires, constantly convincing us that this is what life is. And, of course, Amazon company itself is such a massive part of that machine that it deserves its own spotlight.
What was the impulse that made you want to rewrite this site? How did the idea of intervening in Amazon's site begin?
It probably started with anger and helplessness. I'm deeply interested in how the modern world works, society, the economy, which has become inseparable from politics now, and the reasons behind everything happening around us. And, to be honest, the more details I understand and observe, the sadder and more pessimistic I become about the future.
Once, I stood in a museum in front of a painting behind a red velvet rope. A spotless museum, a multi-million-dollar artwork, created by an artist who, while alive, couldn't afford food or a safe place to sleep, and who spoke against the system. And what do we see now? Capitalism has swallowed and digested it perfectly. Now, most people come to take a selfie, post it on Instagram, turning a moment of their life into sellable content, content that makes someone richer while making all of us poorer (and yes, there is a direct impact from the accumulation of capital in one person's hands on all of us). That's ridiculous, right? And I thought: okay, if capitalism appropriates everything it touches, then let's appropriate capitalism! Where is its HQ? Haha, I found the idea hilarious. That's how amazin was born.
It's a kind of healthy aggression directed at the image of the main enemy, combined with an idealistic desire to somehow make the world a little better. And also irony, of course. Also, I used the idea of reuse. There is already so much in this world that it feels like we barely need anything new. I wanted to apply that idea not only to the physical world but to the digital one, to take something and reuse it.
So I built a website from a parallel, beautiful world: Amazon became amazin, the utilitarian became completely useless, and the frightening became incredibly beautiful. For 30–40 minutes of the performance, the audience and I create this world together, a world without Amazon, but with amazin, which brings joy, fun, and relief. It's not often that we can laugh at the system, and it feels so good.
You flip capitalist symbols from the inside out. For you, is subversion about rewriting rather than escaping?
Fuuuf that's a hard question. Even though I'm using the real website, it still doesn't feel enough to call it "rewriting the machine." For me, it's still an escape, because rewriting isn't possible. Or maybe rewriting is the escape haha.
We'll see what comes next, but even talking about all this right now already shakes the system a bit. I hope we keep shaking it.
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