BREEDING GROUND
Now that digitisation is increasing, humans seem to be driving digital information to strengthen themselves, a trend that has led to humans and data having become a symbiotic act, a union that is both fused and divided. When the link between humans has data strung together and eventually becomes a complete data body, then perhaps the data body will be self-aware and manipulate and guide humans.
Humans use data to strengthen individual capabilities, and data uses humans as breeding grounds to cling to and continue to grow and spread.
The work visualises the relationship between humans and data in the form of a wearable device, and simulates the flow of data through the repetitive movement of a mechanical structure. As the data body spreads through human society and asserts its sovereignty, it gradually takes on a sense of autonomy of its own.
Dataism holds that "the universe consists of a stream of data. The value of any phenomenon or entity lies in its contribution to the processing of data." This also means that all the data we record, upload and share in various ways will be used to build a stream of data that will inform who we are, what we should be doing, and guide all our choices.
We are deeply dependent on and trust the data and information that electronics bring us to guide us, because relying on data allows us to enhance our judgement, perception, five senses and other aspects of human functioning, so as to reduce cognitive bias and allow the human community to move to a higher latitude.
As the data system is constantly linked to unify humanity, what kind of being will we become when this balance is broken and we are already driven by the data? The existence of data is now raising the lower limit of humanity as a group, not the upper limit. When the lower limit has been raised, the whole group will make the next choice, and perhaps then data will be humanity.
If the world is connected to data as a system, and everything is left to data, then humans will be subservient to data, held hostage, observed and gazed at.
Driven by digitalisation and dataist speculation, the world's creatures will evolve into an interconnected system in which nature will be free from human interference and humans will coexist with nature, with data being a necessary part of this and attaching humans to it as a breeding ground that will continue to grow and spread. I hope to explore the relationship or possibilities of such a relationship through wearable devices.
Cinematographer & Photographer | Dorisluming
