What's WEIRD?

What is Weird Media, and in which ways can media be “weirded”? When looking at the definition of the word, one source is that of the Old German wyrd, which translates to “fate” and referred to the three mythological sisters of Fate. However, the Fates were considered eerie, uncanny, or unearthly, and this meaning is embedded in today’s definition.  Furthermore, when one “weirds” art, the participant may experience an odd, unusual, and sometimes uneasy sensation. How can art “weird” the digital?
 

For this year’s iDMAa exhibition, the theme is that of “weird” media – does your work possess a strange, uncanny, or unearthly quality? Does your art “weird” people out? Does your work go so far that you feel it challenges the fates themselves, or to the point of the sublime?

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This exhibition proposes artwork that uses digital processes to experiment in hybrid forms of intermedia art including but not limited to digital visual art, digital photography, digital video, digital design, digital sound, Internet (net) art, 3-D printing and/or fabrication, electronic literature, transmedia narrative, interactive / multimedia installation, mobile computing, VR/AR, and works influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The Weird Media exhibition coincides with the annual International Digital Media and Arts Association (iDMAa) conference, to be held on the campus of Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, from June 24-26, 2022.