#digital age

SEEING I

For 24-hours a day, for 28-days, artist Mark Farid will wear a virtual reality headset, experiencing life through the eyes and ears of another: the Other.

Inspired by the ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’ (1971), Jean Baudrillard’s ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ (1981), and Josh Harris’ ‘Quiet: We Live in Public’ (1999), Seeing I will confine Farid to a gallery space in London, subjected to the simulated life of the project’s Other. With no pre-knowledge of, or existing relationship to the Other, the only details confirmed to Farid will be that the Other is in a relationship and at least eighteen years of age.

For the duration of the project’s 28-days, Farid will experience no human interaction relative to his own life, allowing his indirect relationship with the Other to become Farid’s leading narrative. Will the constant stream of artificial sights and sounds start to displace his own internal monologue?

Adapting the question of nature vs. nurture to the digital age, Seeing I will consider how large a portion of the individual is an inherent self, and how large a portion is a consequence of environmental culture. Will the 28-days alter Farid’s movement, mannerisms, personality, memory or rationale? Without freewill to determine who he is, will Farid’s consciousness be enough to deter significant changes?

Here: http://www.seeing-i.co.uk/

Congress needs access tech experts to deal with the most pressing technological issues of our time, from data privacy to artificial intelligence. That’s why I’m working to restore funding for the Office of Technology Assessment.

It’s a smart move to #RestoreOTA.

As we’re living in the digital age we’ve seen a wave of connected devices, selfies, apps, foodstagramming - the lot. 

But did you ever think that an app connected to your shoe would be able to track the world around you? 

Say hello to ‘the world’s first down to earth wearable technology’.

Shoestagram 'enables users to fully control their iPhones with a combination of custom voice commands and foot gestures to unleash the full potential of a phone strapped to your shoe.' 

Check out their video here, to get a taster for what Shoestagram are all about here - http://shoestagram.me/

Schopenhauer on Social Media

‘[T]hey reverse the natural order, regarding the opinions of others as real existence and their own consciousness as something shadowy, making the derivative and secondary in to the principle, and considering the picture they present to the world of more importance than their own selves. By thus trying to get a direct and immediate result out of what has no really direct or immediate existence, they fall in to the kind of folly which is called vanity.’

Read more here.

(Artwork by Dijana Vilić.)