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STATEMENT:
The primary area of investigation in my work is the interface between
technology and culture, where seemingly insignificant data becomes comodity
and where privacy and profit intersect. Tracking, datamining, and bioengineering
are recurrent subtexts related to the examination of technological intrusion.
Through tagging, numbering, barcoding and other devices, I mock the excesses
of data collection which characterize the fin de millennium. I attempt to
examine some of the ethical dilemmas which occur when our ability to find
out exceeds the need to know, when the development of technology outpaces
social structure. The work investigates the absurdities which result from
our progressive loss of awareness of what is real and what is not, as even
fake and faux seem real now that we are struggling with the paradigm of
virtual.
"Magic Cookie" (left) literalizes the Internet concept
of the same name, offering the viewer a present for compliant behavior and
leaving behind troubling crumbs of software with the potential for invasion
of privacy. "Direct Mail" (center) is also a piece about
privacy, security and the inability of the resident (as represented by the
hand in the envelope window) to protect themselves from electronic intrusion.
"Pandora's Box" (right) addresses the kind of standoff
between culture and technology as well as the valuation of cultural product.
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Madge Gleeson
