The Glass Room installation view. All photos courtesy of Tactical Technology Collective and the artists.
The Glass Room, a pop-up exhibition organized by Tactical Technology Collective, a Berlin-based non-profit working to promote technological activism, done in collaboration with Mozilla, the non-profit behind the popular web browser of the same name.
The glitzy and pristine white space was filled to the brim with tech-inflected artworks, many of which were disguised as objects you would typically find in a high-end tech store. But the sterile appearance was ultimately a façade; there was no consumer tech for sale within the space. The works were joined by the desire to expose viewers to the malicious underbelly of the wonderfully convenient Information Age.
Separated into different categories depending on the type of issues explored in the works, the pieces were as compelling as they were harrowing. Forgot your password? by Aram Bartholl consists of a series of books where the artist compiled the 4.6 million passwords leaked by Linkedin in 2012 within their pages.
Located in the Data Detox Bar section of the exhibition, Julian Olivier and Danja Vasiljev’s Newstweek is a device that manipulates online news headlines that you don’t like or don’t fit your narrative into ones that are more “appropriate” to your sensibilities.
In Unfitbit by Surya Mattu and Tega Brain, a FitBit is attached to objects like a metronome or a drill to trick the device into thinking you are working out, thus selling fake, inaccurate data to your health insurance that hopefully lowers your premium.
“The Glass Room was inspired by two things: First, a desire to make the questions raised by living in a data society tangible and accessible using real projects, humor, and good design. Secondly, to use the language of commerce as a way to critique our enthusiasm for new technologies,” says Stephanie Hankey, a co-founder of Tactical Technology Collective and an organizer of the event.
[…]
Although The Glass Room has already concluded, full documentation of the works can be found on the project’s website, along with a series of informative resources, and a hilarious 8-day “Data Detox Kit” meant to cleanse you of your over-connectivity and oversharing tendencies.
Check out more of Tactical Technology Collective’s projects and exhibitions here.
You can see and read more at The Creators Project. I wish I could have seen this one in person, it’s bloody brilliant.
It’s always interesting to see how artists are usually the first to try to figure out how screwed everything is.
I like the idea of a glass bar. It may be an art installation today, but one day I would like to visit one for a drink.
Anyway, that’s an aside.
I’m actually rather fascinated by the password books -- not sure why, probably a weird curiosity about how other people go about creating their own passwords (and maybe mine’s in there, too!).
Also Newstweek. Reminds me of changing ‘political correctness’ to ‘being nice’ or whatever the switch was. But tailored individually. Neat.
Also Missing Data Sets and Invisible would be interesting to explore in person.
The Fertility Chip is creepy as all fuck (seriously, remote control of fertility and then you ponder security issues…). DNA Phenotyping is a Thing that will be talked about in the forensic community over the years to come in relation to private information, overreach, TMI and data security, because the technology is getting scarily good. The statistical analyses, well… the website says “vast genetic data sets”, but I wouldn’t describe them as ‘vast’ quite yet. Trying to get there.
I would be especially wary, on several levels, of the Predictive Policing.
Honestly, how much of this is art and how much is downright scary, is… scary.
rq, you can see more of the password books here: http://datenform.de/forgot-your-password-eng.html
There are numerous(?) glass drinking bars in existence, Generalisimo Google™ images.
What is bugging me now is I’m fairly sure I’ve drunk in one, but cannot remember where or when (must have been a good night out!). I wonder if it was in one of the rotating restaurants in Toronto? I would normally avoid such a gimmick, but there was a party related to the convention I was attending…