There has been a transformation in the way that we understand and navigate reality. Information is filtered through screens, and connections are made via digital synapses. These Interfaces have streamlined and structured contemporary life, opening a whole new way of being. We have adapted to this era of technological socialisation, extracting gigabytes of humanity from this largely intangible experience.
However, there is also a persistent, unanimous feeling of hesitance and scepticism that permeates this digital lifestyle. We have readily submitted with a disquieting ease to being mediated, surveilled, extracted - coaxed into algorithmic patterns - auto-corrected, notified, automated. Is there still the capacity to differentiate and distinguish what is and isn’t real? Or have we been completely consumed into this hybrid existence? Perhaps, the way that we understand our human experience has been destabilised. The way that we have extended ourselves into synthetic fragments is far reaching, but numbing and nullifying.
The arts still prevail as a tether to human connection - even in digital mediums, there is a tangible intervention of imagination, creativity, and consciousness. The arts mirror a human language that cannot be truly replicated or extracted by purely digital or artificial means. This conceptual exhibition makes a real and collective experience out of an isolating issue. Use this opportunity to embrace frustration, feel anticipation - take control, take note, take a breath. Make your own distance, choose your own connections.
We’ll see you on the other side.
- Katerina Matheson