Serial Drama Lab by Sabina Suru operates at a crossover between a collective therapy session and a qualitative research focus group. It is designed to map the psychological and artistic coping mechanisms we deploy when confronted with technological failure. Rather than treating technical breakdowns as mere engineering bugs to be resolved, this lab investigates the feraldynamics of technology—the moments when hardware, code, or chemical mediums slip from our control and exhibit an autonomous, unpredictable agency.
When our systems deviate from their prescribed functions, they expose us to our profound human lack of understanding regarding non-human agency. This rupture transforms the studio or laboratory into a volatile terrain, shifting instantly from a space of deep existential despair to one of radical, albeit accidental most times, innovation. By gathering a group of 12+ practitioners (live coders, synth builders, media artists, all us geeks at PIFcamp), Serial Drama Lab functions as a safe space, if indeed such a thing exists, to externalize the frustration, grief, and obsessive behaviors tied to these broken systems. We will share experiences, thoughts and pain, and analyze how artists negotiate with the untamed, non-human behaviors of their materials, translating moments of technical crisis into a formalized technological failure taxonomical research.