Circuit Breaker

Samir Bhowmik, Krisjanis Rijnieks

    Research output: Artistic and non-textual formExhibitionArt in coproductionpeer-review

    Abstract

    The Circuit Breaker is a networked participated installation that critiques the culture of constant connectivity. The installation aims to provoke reflection about the social and energetic impact of our constantly connected digital lives. While harmony between man and machine, body and the network are seen as the primary aspirations of our post-industrial digital society, it has the potential for long-term discord to both natural ecologies and wider implications to local communities. Constant connectivity is not only energy-intensive but could also result in growing dissonance in society at multiple scales: from the social to the political, from resource depletion to climate change. Infrastructures that support connectivity still remain perceived generally as intangible and ethereal just like the ‘Cloud’. By placing online behaviour through community-participated criteria of diversity, as well as an environmental agenda, the installation seeks to draw attention to the materialities and infrastructures of connectivity. As a participated artwork in a gallery, the installation aims to engage local communities, elicit critical responses and reflection on the state of the infrastructure of the Internet that dominates our daily lives. Could artistic methods question the ubiquitousness of connectivity and address related materialities and environmental impacts? Could dis-connectivity remind us of our choices? Could it persuade us to think that every ‘click’ has an energetic footprint and every break in the circuit saves a piece of the earth?

    Exhibited also at Väre Gallery 21.08 - 31.08.2019.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationHelsinki
    PublisherPixelache
    Publication statusPublished - 21 May 2019
    MoE publication typeF2 Partial implementation of a work of art or performance
    EventPixelache Festival - MAA-tila, Helsinki, Finland
    Duration: 22 May 201926 May 2019
    https://breaking5thwall.pixelache.ac/festivals/breaking5thwall/circuit-breaker-by-samir-bhomik

    Keywords

    • energy
    • media
    • infrastructure
    • internet
    • coal
    • electricity
    • connectivity

    Field of art

    • Contemporary art

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