Powder coated steel and aluminium, electronics, LED displays, data and keywords provided by Google AdWords.
180 x 300 x 70 cm. Installation view at Frieze Sculpture Park 2020, Regents Park London.
The artwork reflects on the way our view of the world is being filtered more and more by the decisions that personalised algorithms make for us on-line, while trying to guess what we would like to see, based on informations that they have collected about us, such as location, behaviour and most of all, our search history.
By curating our access to information, the same algorithms become responsible for the so called ‘filter bubble’ or the feeling of intellectual isolation experienced individually by every user of the internet. Also known as echo chamber, such phenomenon reinforces pre-existing views and confirmation bias in so contributing to the increased sense of polarisation we experience daily, something that is also redefining the very same idea of democracy.
The sculpture visualises the current price of the words that are supposed to be mostly searched for on-line by people interested in Regents Park and Frieze; every time these words are searched for, they are assigned a price by digital advertisers such as Google Ads and other SEO companies.
These words rotate every few seconds, displayed shorty on the LED displays, they are also the same words that the sculpture itself should use in order to advertise its presence on-line and ultimately drive more people to its physical location.
