Artist: Isa Analo, Anya Ball, Nicholas Forman, Sean Jin, Mendy Kong, Lesley Moon, Annabelle Olson, Quan Pham, Sofia Rodriguez, Yana Savitsky, Tina Shi, Johannah Marie Suegay, Raeden Tapia-Stevens, Layla Yun

↓ Curatorial statement co-written by Angela Rong and Qianqian Ye ↓

Softness could be a cloud / ephemeral form
Softness could be a dune / morphing landscape

Softness could be the rounded corner of buttons
Softness could be the gradient background on the screens
Softness could be the almost illegible font
Softness could be the tactility when petting the keyboard and mouse
Softness could be the dizzy comfort of welcoming red error messages

Softness could be the fuzzy edge of unknown feelings
Softness could be subtle frustration of wanting more
Softness could be a polite refusal of the right way
Softness could be the brave moment of oversharing
Softness could be the sudden zero-g after admitting your fear
Softness could be a safe place to land
Softness could be the hands that are there to catch us

Can software be … soft?

Softness can seem like an elusive quality in technology, a frivolous whisper in a gallery of glass screens. We want to know comfort, yet also fear being vulnerable in our moments of rest. But how might softness be more than just a temporary respite? As we mix and blur together lines of code, how might we reawaken, relaxed, to new possibilities of living, sleeping, and dreaming?

This exhibition invites visitors to experience the web-based artworks of artists and coders in USC Media Arts + Practice’s IML 300 and 400 classes, as we look beyond the sterile finality of definitions and labels. Cocooned inside brackets, braces, and parentheses, SoftErr is a group exhibition that resonates with the warm, welcoming embrace of our communities -- both digital and in-person. Out of focus, eye to eye, we emerge from the heady fog of coding, cradling our projects of being and becoming. We hope that SoftErr shines a light on the pearl that is your existence and envelopes you in the glowing presence of many. Rest your head for a while; we're making software soft. Let's err on the softer side, softly.

Instructor: Qianqian Ye
Student Assistant: Katherine Yang

Music credit: Harvey Moon