Format: audiovisual performance Artist: dmstfctn Duration: 20 min Year: 2020
ECHO FX (2020) is an audiovisual performance by artist duo dmstfctn, replaying the echoes of misleading information spread on social media and financial markets on the night of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Triggered by a perfectly timed and out of character concession by Nigel Farage, a former trader and the most influential pro-Brexit political figure, those echoes contributed to inflate the value of the Pound market by spreading rumors of a Brexit loss. As the referendum outcome became apparent later that night and the Pound market crashed, a few London City traders, later demonstrated to have gained access to otherwise private polls pointing to a Leave win, made millions from their perfectly timed bets against the Pound.
ECHO FX was screened on the third anniversary of referendum night in June 2019 as part of Hyberdub’s Ø club night at Corsica Studios in London, and it was performed 24h before the United Kingdom left the European Union in January 2020 as part of CTM x transmediale festival at Berghain in Berlin. In November 2021, Krisis Publishing published “ECHO FX” - a collection of essays and visual contributions by writers and artists further exploring the events of the night, and including a digital download of the original performance by dmstfctn.
SLEEK sleek-mag.com/article/echo-fx/ CLOT clotmag.com/digital-culture/reality-check-ahead
https://vimeo.com/568815833/ee82a1a211?share=copy
dmstfctn is a London-based artist duo working with audiovisual performance, games and video installation. Their work investigates complex systems, most recently focusing on the relationship between simulation, machine learning and AI folklore. Since 2018, dmstfctn has performed and exhibited work in venues such as Berghain, Serpentine, Design Museum, Onassis, Corsica Studios, HKW, Fotomuseum Winterthur, LUMA Arles and Aksioma, and at festivals such as Unsound, CTM, transmediale, Impakt, Borderline and Istanbul Design Biennale. In 2019, MILLE PLATEAUX released Flash Demons, a collection of performances focusing on financial market crashes. In 2021, Krisis Publishing published ECHO FX, an audiovisual performance about Brexit market manipulation - the performance was also included in Ø: The Book published by Flatlines/Hyperdub in 2022. dmstfctn were recipient of the 2017 transmediale Vilém Flusser residency.