Every pressing of a button signaling a decision is preceded by a not always fully realized and evident choice of a technology that enables it all. Do we still have a choice, though? Last but not least there is Endless Doomscroller, a web page by an American artist and theoretician Ben Grosser, that offers an experience of endless scrolling through bad news headlines. Reading through shocking and negative news which are more often than not created to rather shock and capture attention than to inform can lead to deterioration of mental health. Perhaps, however, the repetitive movement of the thumb works as a form of meditation and therefore as a tool to fight depression.
The first exhibition of the App art cycle introduces four artworks which critically reflect on the user role in which we all find ourselves thanks to the new developing technologies. Petr Svárovský (carrotpop.com), a Czech artist residing in Oslo, examines the influence of mobile apps and of inherent human playfulness which these apps capitalize upon. The application S.M.T.H. is accompanied by a video projection in the cinema room and it consists of youtube videos filmed by the users of the app themselves. The stories, videos, posts and reviews can be viewed as part of Svárovský’s work. They can be interpreted as users’ autoportairs created by a machine constructed by Svárovský. Another displayed artwork, Fair Warning, created by a Swedish artist Jonah Lund, examines the theme of evaluation and ratings which is crucial to any app, web or platform design no matter the content including data that is very difficult to rate and measure. The topic of choice and choice making is also explored by the Happy New War (metazoa.org) app, this time the theme being the illusion of choice.
Every pressing of a button signaling a decision is preceded by a not always fully realized and evident choice of a technology that enables it all. Do we still have a choice, though? Last but not least there is Endless Doomscroller, a web page by an American artist and theoretician Ben Grosser, that offers an experience of endless scrolling through bad news headlines. Reading through shocking and negative news which are more often than not created to rather shock and capture attention than to inform can lead to deterioration of mental health. Perhaps, however, the repetitive movement of the thumb works as a form of meditation and therefore as a tool to fight depression.
Carrot Pop (Petr Svárovský): S.M.T.H. (Send Me To Heaven)
Jonas Lund: Fair Warning
metazoa.org: Happy New War
Ben Grosser: Endless Doomscroller
