Event
Unmasking the NetworkPost an Event »
Opening reception: Friday, April 18th, 7 p.m.
ASC Projects is proud to present Unmasking the Network, a group exhibition guest curated by Ben Valentine and featuring works by James Bridle, Nick Briz, Silvio Lorusso, Simone Niquille, and Clement Valla.
Unmasking the Network seeks to investigate and expose our hyper-connected world, pushing our understanding and imagination of the communication, power, data structures, and institutions affecting us all. These networks are incredibly powerful, yet intensely resistant to description, facilitating misunderstandings and creating a poor grasp of what the systems do and their relation to our lives. The artists presented in the exhibition explore these themes through subversion of media—chalk outlines of online-mapped drone shadows, satellite images of data storage centers, t-shirts designed to fool face-recognition software—fully aware of the tenuous relationship between their practice and their selected medium.
“Near-ubiquitous communication and big data connect and affect us all. While the internet can be accessed through our smartphones and image recognition software detects our physical identities, data is collected and mined. This data becomes shared through social networks and available to large and secretive government agencies. This information architecture remains hidden to the majority of global citizens, yet profoundly affects our lives. New systems of power are emerging and these means of surveillance dominate global businesses and governance today.
The new media work in Unmasking the Network appears both in and outside of the gallery walls. Each work examines the tools and systems of the networked realities. This disconnect between the near-unintelligible yet ubiquitous software and hardware builds an ever worse understanding of our built environment. Debates about economics, surveillance, drones, and more are too often characterized by misunderstandings, lies, and fear. Given the speed and thoroughness at which the world is becoming more connected, this work nurtures a much-needed dialogue, one which demands deep investigation, new language, and a keen imagination. This show is an attempt at articulating and imagining for the audience a few of those amorphous but physical realities of networked life today.” — Ben Valentine
The show is accompanied by texts by James Bridle, Clement Valla, Simone Niquille, and Silvio Lorusso — all of which will be available on the gallery’s website. James Bridle’s Drone Shadows can be found in several locations around the Bay Area, and are documented on Instagram and Twitter using the tag, #DroneShadows. Bridle’s Drone Shadow Handbook, is available for purchase or download online, should you wish to create your own Drone Shadow.