Mindy Seu does not simply research the internet. She works in its language, using the feed, the story and the shared screen to turn scholarship into performance.

For its only Queensland presentation, the American artist and technologist brings her acclaimed lecture-performance A Sexual History of the Internet to a secret location on James St. Presented in partnership with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and made possible with Now or Never Festival, Melbourne, the event marks one of only three Australian stagings of the work.

Moving between performance art, publishing and academic inquiry, A Sexual History of the Internet traces the sexual politics embedded in digital culture. Employing a miscellany of artifacts, art, net lore, and historical anecdotes, the work asks how desire, power and the body have shaped the tools we use every day.

Rather than delivering it from behind a podium, Seu places her research in the hands of the audience. Guests access a shared script through Instagram Stories, reading aloud from fragments, citations and archival material. The private act of scrolling becomes collective, vocal and live.

Accompanied by Seu’s palm-sized artist book of the same name, the performance reimagines internet history through the very devices, platforms and behaviours it seeks to examine.

Tickets are highly limited. The performance location will be shared exclusively with ticket holders.

Please note: This performance requires all attendees to have a charged mobile device with Instagram downloaded and functional, as well as a stable internet connection. Content includes explicit references to sex and sexual assault. It also includes bright, transmissive light in a very dark space. Recommended for ages 18+.

Please contact madeline@ima.org.au for more information.