Present Shock II
London, 2023
LED, Sound, Code
Present Shock II confronts the viewer with a barrage of statistical clocks and live news feeds representing real-time information about the world—from life-changing global events to the banal trivia of everyday existence—highlighting how the speed and volume of data in the Information Age present new challenges to our cognitive apparatus. Many of the statistics presented occur at timescales and spatial horizons that defy our sense perception or comprehension. Disturbing the inertia of the here and now, they reveal the fluctuating state of dynamic transformation that characterises life on earth.
The installation makes palpable the feeling of “information overload” that defines our current moment, disrupting our sense of time, coherence, and narrative. Our inability to parse such a dense and cacophonous media environment leads to the collapse of consensus reality, or a mutually agreed upon sense of what is real, opening the door to “post-truths” and “alternative facts.” Many of the statistics presented here are factual, but as they are sourced from the Internet, there is no way of verifying their accuracy. These real statistics are also intermingled with automatically generated news headlines inspired by current news stories.
For this iteration, Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja has composed a new procedural score in collaboration with Robert Thomas.
Run time: Continuous
In collaboration with Robert Del Naja
Machine Learning by David Li
Commissioned by 180 Studios
Film by Matt Watt
Images 1, 10 & 11 by Jack Hems
Images 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 by Sandra Ciampone
