Zach Gage
Friday, 25 February 2011
Work from Data.
“With my installation, Data, I explore a number of discrepancies surrounding our use of data, and how that use is, or could be, shaping our lives for the better or worse.
As a society, we are in a transitional time where we are no longer packing our memories into cardboard boxes, instead putting all of that content into digital “boxes”. We do this despite having a limited understanding of how these new “boxes” work. This makes it difficult to keep track of such previously simple concepts as where our things are going, how we can use them, or even how long they will exist.
We are thrilled to have digital photos, digital music, and correspondence through email, but we don’t usually realize the value of these pieces of data until they are lost to us. In the physical world we take steps to protect this kind of information, putting it in photo albums or treasure boxes and treating those containers carefully. In the virtual space however, we often don’t take any steps to protect these most valued possessions.
We are so excited to have infinite access to information, that we often choose to search for something over and over again, assuming it will always be there online, rather than save, or even bookmark it.
We love sharing our information with others publicly, yet when it comes back to haunt us weeks or years later we are upset and surprised.
We lament how the popular gain power, and then choose to make popularity the strongest metric of success in a new environment.
And most importantly, we store our collective memory online, and reference it often, without asking how it can enrich our lives beyond convenience.” – Zach Gage