Artistic Statement for Project #1:
Concerning People and Technology:
Issues of Privacy and Control

The works, Data Mining and Technological Takeover, represent two aspects of my concerns regarding the potential incursions of technology upon our lives, namely, upon our privacy and upon our autonomy. The first, Data Mining, is a response to the development and use of sophisticated data mining software applications which in and of themselves are incredible tools for research, information retrieval, and all of the services available through such search engines as Google. The existence of such software is not the source of my concern; in fact, these tools represent an incredible capability which has only begun to be explored. But the concern remains that these tools can be grossly misused to invade privacy, to retrieve and exploit information, and to violate boundaries and rights that we have thus far taken for granted. To illustrate this I have selected three basic examples: first, a page from my g-mail account in which ads, relevant to the e-mail opened, appear along the side; second, a page from the website WeFeelFine which trolls the web, particularly the Blogosphere, to assemble data on feelings expressed around the world and to exhibit these in visual displays that can be configured and mapped according to demographics of age, sex, geography, time, and weather; third, an image from a digital mapping site that maps connections on Facebook. While none of these represent a violation of privacy as I understand it (though Google is pushing it a bit by mining data from my e-mail and then posting unasked-for ads in my account), they do represent the capability to retrieve, store, map, and otherwise use personal information.

In designing this piece I chose to superimpose the images so as to visually represent the accumulation of data plus a sense of the variety of ways in which data is represented. The text object on the lower left repeating the phrase “DATA MINING” was created with the Text tool and then rasterized to give me the capability of shaping it and distorting it to give a sense of perspective, expressive of the emergence and flow of data and data mining. The text is thus intended to indicate a sort of pathway or road or influx, a flow to the viewer similar to the flow of data mining as well as to present a verbal marker pointing to the intent and meaning of the piece. The sheep standing on this text path and platform is there as a witness and commentator, also a metaphor of the innocence and harmlessness that can be violated by inappropriate use of data mining.

The second work, Technological Takeover, expresses a related concern, namely the increased interface, even interpenetration, of man and machine. Given that Star Trek’s Borg have become an iconic representation of the dangers of technological dehumanization, I chose to bring together images of several Borg drones superimposed upon images of Borg cube-like interior architecture. Again I have introduced sheep as witnesses, visual commentators on the scene and the issues involved.

Given that I have chosen to address incredibly complex issues, I decided to render them in a style more suggestive than explicit, including, hopefully, enough detail to get my message across, at least to illuminate some of these issues in a way that may provoke awareness, thought and dialogue. In the development of my themes, I had to narrow down my image search and selection to images with sufficient resolution to be usable. The images I came up with turned out to be just the ones needed, for example an image of the interior of a new library in Mexico City served to represent Borg architecture. I’ve just learned about the Select Pixels option in CS4 and was able to use that, especially with text. I am also learning to merge layers and in Technological Takeover made use of layer masks, the clone tool, and the smudge tool to achieve the final effects. The Borg figures in the upper left were separated and placed on different layers in order to create a sort of wrap-around perspective, then reassembled using various tools to smooth out the transition. Working on the pieces helped me to learn about Photo Shop CS4. It also helped me to clarify and develop my own insights into the issues addressed. I am happy with the resulting works. They express what I set out to express and may at some point develop into a more expansive series.