With dating apps here to stay, the quest for love has become as much about algorithms as physical attraction.
This Friday night at the V&A, you can swipe, like, and explore the future of dating. What role does data and tech play in your campaign for true love? What is actually at stake when you consider natural chemistry, your right to privacy and/or emotional disaster? Contemplate the new rules of sex and relationships, challenge your old ideas and question how to navigate everything in the future.
Our picks of the program:
The Object Marriage
Medieval & Renaissance, Room 50b The Paul and Jill Ruddock Gallery, 18.45 & 20.30
What does the future hold for our love of consumption? The Object Marriage is 20 minute performance directed and designed by Céline Minkyung Park. In this collaborative project with choreographer Winona Eguy, Céline imagines a dystopian society where ‘objectophiles’ can marry objects they love without shame or stigma.
Swipe back
Sculpture 1300–1600, Room 25
Journalist Judith Duportail asked Tinder for her personal data and received a staggering 800 pages. On Friday she will share a sample with the audience and examine the companies behind the apps with algorithms claiming to find your perfect match. She will ask, do we want our love lives to be guided tours? Let’s swipe back! Our bodies, our choices, our data.
Emotion Capture
Fashion, Room 40
Emotion Capture aims to reveal the emotions behind our amorous practices. The playful simulation device was designed by Royal College of Art student Arthur Gouillart and proposes new ways of representing love using motion capture 47a B technology.
Kissing
The Blavatnik Hall
Kissing turns an intimate moment between two people into an interactive, digital public display. Commissioned by Block Universe, Kissing is a live, sound reactive installation designed by artistic collaborators Tango & Hawaii. As each couple takes centre stage, join the chorus and guide the smoochers to their fate.
The Male Gaze Reimagined
The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Level 4 at 19.00
Online dating and social media often relies heavily on curated self-surveillance. Is self-presentation online empowering? What are the risks of surrendering our privacy, whether to potential partners or to online dating companies? Silkie Carlo will chair a panel discussion with journalist Judith Duprotail, Dr. Róisín Ryan-Flood and Laura Thompson, looking at the future of dating with a feminist lens, and what it means to conduct our love lives online.
Our Dating Lives
The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Level 4 at 20.15
Where next for love in a world that can keep us continuously connected? And are we really going to need each other when the sex robots come? From a once scandalous act of offering an unknown lady an umbrella in the street, to the algorithms behind modern online dating, Kate Devlin and Nichi Hodgson explore the evolving story of intimate relationships.
Need to know:
- All events are free and places are designated on a first-come, first- served basis, unless stated otherwise.
- Filming and photography will take place at this event.
- Please note, if the Museum reaches capacity access will be allowed on a one-in, one-out basis.
Get Social/Find Love
- Friday Late
- Facebook: /Victoriaandalbertmuseum Twitter: @V_and_A Instagram: @vamuseum #FridayLate
- View photos of Friday Late here.
Pictured at top: cover art by Kristen Liu. / i: @kliuwong
The Garb Wire 