The word scale is tricky. It invites many definitions, orientations and connections to ourselves, our surroundings and our tools. However, to think of scale as solely technical is reductive and omits the relations, feelings and beliefs that come with such measurements and images. In this book, eight authors come together to challenge our conventions and understanding of scale as grounded in the human. In their texts, Asia Bazdyrieva, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, Anthony Downey, FRAUD (Audrey Samson & Francisco Gallardo), Chris Lee, Jussi Parikka and Laura Tripaldi expand our understanding of scale to the more-than-human, trace its movements and frictions through histories, and question the way scale generates political power. Demonstrating how we can think with scale, they introduce us to scalar thinking, its urgency in our socio-technical present and its potential for making new maps, new representations and new kinds of measurements.

Nora O Murchú is a curator and researcher. In her curatorial work, she explores online culture and the implications of technological developments. She is a Professor at the University of Limerick in Ireland. She was the artistic director of transmediale in Berlin from 2021-2024.

Janez Fakin Janša is a conceptual artist and independent art producer. He is co-founder and artistic director of Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, and a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana.

COLOPHON

A Short Incomplete History of Technologies That Scale

Contributors: Asia Bazdyrieva, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, Anthony Downey, FRAUD (Audrey Samson and Francisco Gallardo), Chris Lee, Jussi Parikka, Laura Tripaldi

Editors: Nóra Ó Murchú, Janez Fakin Janša Design and layout: Federico Antonini, Simone Cavallin

Published by: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana Represented by: Marcela Okretič

and

transmediale e.V., Berlin Represented by: Filippo Gianetta

Ljubljana, November 2023 © Aksioma, the authors