Tega Brain, Sam Lavigne: The New Organs

Title:

The New Organs

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Exhibiting Artist(s):

Tega Brain
Sam Lavigne

Symposium:

ISEA2020: 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Creation Year:

2018 - ongoing

Medium:

Artist Statement:

By employing the metaphor of the ear and its pinna, which punctuates the documentary overseeing the project, The New Organs is an archive of the micro-surveillances impacting one’s exploration of online content.

The artwork is a collection of personal accounts that reveal, through a multitude of singular experiences, the constant tracking of internet users. At Sam Lavigne’s request, they have provided him with testimonials of events that may seem insignificant, but which are clues to the constant eavesdropping and spying of conversations and itineraries, online or offline, carried out through our electronic devices.

This plethora of testimonies tell the same story: that of the constant and unpunished violation of the right to privacy. Exploring the work generates a certain sense of powerlessness that can hopefully lead us to regain control of our behaviors and habits. Through his work of investigation and participatory inquiry, Lavigne not only reveals the monitoring conducted by GAFAM but also creates a form of counter-surveillance that allows us users to spy on the algorithm that tracks us.