Studio DEMO x NEW INC: SWANA Digital Kitsch

NEW INC Studio DEMO sessions explore how stories are told, preserved, and reimagined through emerging technologies and media. Bringing together artists and practitioners working across formats, this program considers the archive not as a fixed record, but as an evolving system shaped by access, interpretation, and time. Across these conversations, storytelling becomes a tool for memory-making, one that expands what is kept, and who it is kept for.

Umber Majeed moderates a conversation on archiving technological histories from the SWANA region, bringing together Amad Ansari of Palestine Online and the duo behind Khajistan. Together, they examine the challenges of preserving Global South technology histories, shaped by specific and often underrepresented contexts, from Palestinian internet histories to Pakistani and regional queer erotics, and South Asian diasporic memory explored through XR.

The conversation introduces the concept of South Asian (West Asian) digital kitsch, considering how aesthetics, circulation, and cultural memory intersect across digital spaces.

Studio DEMO is a live broadcast hub at the New Museum, open to drop into throughout the day and available via livestream. Featuring NEW INC's wider creative community, broadcasts take the form of talks, demonstrations, couch conversations, panel discussions, DJ sets, and more. This year, NEW INC partners with peer organizations to build thematic programming for Studio DEMO. Partners include Geidai Project, Onassis Foundation, Rhizome, Serpentine, YoungArts.