We, the searchers
2020
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Site-specific intervention at Page Not Found artspace and artist’s bookstore
audio tracks, prints, publication, framed works on paper
A series of top-ten Google search results transformed into poetic verses - revealing not only specific ideologies that are shared by countless others within a common geographical location, but also sentimental phrases that reflect millions of queries entered into the world’s most popular search engine. The work is a fragment of a larger research that probes into questions about where facts, images, history, data, archives and dreams meet in this era of post-truth.
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Speakers scattered around the exhibition space, reading aloud 10 ‘poems’ fabricated from 10 different Google auto-generated top-10 search results. Each search result will be presented in pairs - the same search was conducted twice with two different region settings, The Netherlands (current location) & Hong Kong respectively. When viewers enter into the space, they will immediately be immersed in a muttering ambience, yet the atmosphere is not an ear-splitting one. Only upon closer inspection and discovery of each speaker one will be able to hear clearly precisely what are being said - the search results verses in duo (my voice juxtaposed with google assistant’s automated voice).
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Prints as posters scattered in piles around the space, printed images are
sourced from Google Image results of the corresponding text searches.
Curated bookshelf dedicated to books that belong to me (with bookmarks and memos) that inspired the project and answered some of the questions raised about truth-searching in a post-truth era, the meaning and mecha- nism behind the alogrithmic control on search engine, the experience of distant togetherness in digital world, the absurdity of algorithmic cultural differentiation. Books on all other shelves in the space are sourced from the library of Page Not Found, they are selected on display based on the book titles and/or content that are related to the idea of the project.
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Framed
watercolor painting & the background context of the project - an incident that happened with the Google search result for
‘yellow’ within the region Hong Kong.
The publication of the same title - please click here for details
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2020
Site-specific intervention at Page Not Found artspace and artist’s bookstore
audio tracks, prints, publication, framed works on paper
A series of top-ten Google search results transformed into poetic verses - revealing not only specific ideologies that are shared by countless others within a common geographical location, but also sentimental phrases that reflect millions of queries entered into the world’s most popular search engine. The work is a fragment of a larger research that probes into questions about where facts, images, history, data, archives and dreams meet in this era of post-truth.
Speakers scattered around the exhibition space, reading aloud 10 ‘poems’ fabricated from 10 different Google auto-generated top-10 search results. Each search result will be presented in pairs - the same search was conducted twice with two different region settings, The Netherlands (current location) & Hong Kong respectively. When viewers enter into the space, they will immediately be immersed in a muttering ambience, yet the atmosphere is not an ear-splitting one. Only upon closer inspection and discovery of each speaker one will be able to hear clearly precisely what are being said - the search results verses in duo (my voice juxtaposed with google assistant’s automated voice).
Curated bookshelf dedicated to books that belong to me (with bookmarks and memos) that inspired the project and answered some of the questions raised about truth-searching in a post-truth era, the meaning and mecha- nism behind the alogrithmic control on search engine, the experience of distant togetherness in digital world, the absurdity of algorithmic cultural differentiation. Books on all other shelves in the space are sourced from the library of Page Not Found, they are selected on display based on the book titles and/or content that are related to the idea of the project.
The publication of the same title - please click here for details
Installation view at the curated space of Page Not Found, The Hague
Image courtesy : Jhoeko, 1646, Bertus Pieters, Giath Taha
A more comprehensive description of the exhibition can be viewed here.