SOCIAL GLITCH

Sylvia Eckermann, Singularium, 2015, installation view, photo: Eva Würdinger

SYLVIA ECKERMANN (AT)

SINGULARIUM, 2015

Interpassive object. Polystyrene sheets and mirrors, 4 loudspeakers, monitor, camera, computer, 160 x 160 x 80 cm.

Composition of the voices: Szely. Construction: Bela Eckermann.

The uniqueness and singularity of the individual is no longer just a claim. It is measured and evaluated. The measurement creates the measured. The individual measured through digital methods is modified under the data loupe. Numbers become norms, measurements become standards. Through this "reduction of complexity" (Niklas Luhmann) numbers order our world. It is only a small step from ordering to evaluation. The movement of our bodies, behaviours and feelings, and our capital are subject to permanent observation. We find ourselves in a colossal feedback loop fed by data about our own behaviour. The collective of the data suppliers are the counted who cannot count back – they are seen through but cannot look back. This lack of transparency is an expression of the power, not of the nature of the algorithms.

SINGULARIUM investigates this territory – an inverted crystal as a black box that immerses the visitors. In the encounter with their own external image, they experience, distanced and fragmentary, a "reality that is improbable" (Elena Esposito) yet becomes more concrete.

Sylvia Eckermann, Singularium, 2015, detail, photo: Eva Würdinger