Zuck-Err-DNA #9

Nowadays, everyone is an artist; the new technologies for distributing media allow for unprecedented hyper-consumption, which has caused the (professional) field of media makers to explode exponentially for the past decade. Consequently, thanks to modern compression algorithms and the storage possibilities in the cloud, everyone can also become a media and thus art collector.

Knowledge of technology in the Covid 19 pandemic regulates access to literally all areas of society. At the height of the Corona wave, no test or vaccination appointment was effectively possible without a digital login, and access to restaurants, public transport, libraries and museums was denied.

Technology and algorithms are distorting our everyday lives like never before, distorting the face of society as a whole and, in the form of filters on social media, literally distorting our individual faces - they are even allowed to do so with our consent: some media producers even admit to no longer publishing self-portraits without filtering.

We are on our way to an all-encompassing radicality: on our way to a radicality of self-representation, self-perception, but also of perception itself: only radical news is worth our attention, a human weakness that ensures that differentiated, well-researched news has been replaced. This human weakness is exploited by digital tycoons: the Facebook father, for example, uses the power of distorting algorithms to increase activity on his platform, as well as to polarise opinion. Another step towards radicalism.

We also carry the algorithmic scars that affect us from everywhere in our DNA, just like the face of Mister Zuckerberg, who wants to digitise our lives for good with his ultimate meta-vision: the Zuck face is also as scarred by the faulty algorithms as the entire human DNA.