Asking how social media impacts users’ sense of self, identity and reality are questions that are significantly pertinent within contemporary society, given the intrinsic and extrinsic power relations involved. The extent of how habitual digitalism has become is reflected in the diverse range of its uses on a global scale, from socio-cultural, political, financial and marketing means of communication, knowledge exchange and manipulation. These are the primary threads that bind its users, bringing to light questions of agency, control and the evolving state of humanity. The conditions of this lived experience are indeed complex, and formulaic, developed through processes which deliberately withhold details of intention and design aimed at shaping the subconscious. Yet, how far can one call this praxis and its use inception or indeed data colonization? Can users who are self-aware and reflexive of their actions still be labelled under such umbrella terms and can the same be said for producers?
Working within this liminal framework of suggestibility and manipulation exhibition aim to draw attention to how hierarchies of power are subject to users’ complicit actions and subjective perspectives. Believe that even if you do not believe in something, if you are exposed to it enough … act it out enough … you will change. Via the changing stimulus of culture, society, and information … leading to a change in DNA. Experimenting through self-aware, non-apologetic, and consciously reprogramming in the hope that it might work, whilst also trying to draw attention to the complex relations at work within the production, consumption and interactive uses of social media.
METANOIA*
Mental neu.t.reAlization
exhibition The Peace Mechanism
“The key programs of human behaviour are habitual patterns of mind and body.
You can change yourself through a series of reprogramming interruptions, conditioning, visualizations and affirmations, or by acting as if the change has already occurred.” Michael Olsson, About Mental Programming
*Metanoia, is an Ancient Greek word (μετάνοια) meaning "changing one's mind". Psychology may refer to the process of experiencing a psychotic "breakdown" and subsequent, positive psychological re-building or "healing"
Work for this series is inspired by the ancient Hawaiian spiritual practice of Ho’oponopono.
The word Ho'oponopono (ho-o-pono-pono) in Hawaiian means to change/edit.
In Greek the word ο πονοs (o ponos) means pain and ο πονώ (o ponoo) means I am in pain.
The Hawaiian religious belief is that deep-seated painful memories, negative thoughts and fears rise within us, within our cellular data and resonate into the world around us creating negative energy, negative people, vandalism, global conflict, oppression, wars and tragedies. The Hawaiians also believe that we are solely responsible for this and in order to break this cycle we need ... to forgive.
Memorizing specific words with repetition, even if we do not believe but by acting as if the change already happened, can help, the state, to erase harming data, reprogram the cells even reboot where everything is reset to its initial state of the operating system.
What if this is true?
Bearing our consumer-orientated society in mind, as well as human’s inability to truly forgive, the artist is hoping that making an artwork that look-alike the "AI machine for humans reprogramming" will entertain the human users well enough so at the same time will succeed to embroider the most challenging affirmation into their memory. If the mantra is memorized almost like a commercial song which is hard to stop singing in our minds… initiation was made.
METANOIA is an antivirus system, which can be used beneficially; while paradoxically it can create an alternative discourse relating to control and influence, given that this installation is also designed as a product with an advertised intent.
