Have you ever thought of erasing your entire digital footprint? All those selfies, archived emails, tweets, likes, check-ins, late night chat sessions...We never really know what to do with our old storage devices, hard drives, old phones full of our secrets, and sometimes, secrets that we have forgotten about ourselves, or at least forgotten their imprint. Because we are afraid of letting them go, because we are not sure we want to get rid of them, because we wonder what will happen to them, who would find them, and what would they do with them...we do not know whether or not our anxieties are justified, but we still have them.
The digital data funeral is meant as futile ritual of erasure that reflects upon big data analysis and surveillance fueled by social networking sites, and the technological infrastructure of the network. The work is presented as an installation, a graveyard of embalmed devices as pictured in the image above. Other iterations of this project have included embalming workshops (using some of the so-called Snowden files) and data embalming performances.
In an opnineg performance Audrey Samson shows a data embalming using "Snowden Files".
Concept: Audrey Samson
Support, Workshop: Ushi Reiter
The workshop offers participants the opportunity to receive their own digital data funeral. It is centered on the so-called Snowden files (the few that were published), and explores issues of surveillance and datafication. Participants are presented with a short background on these themes and given a USB key to choose the files they wish to embalm. Embalming occurs during the workshop and each participant leaves with their own embalmed data relic. The workshop also requires additional material and health and safety requirements listed below.
Opening: Thursday, 16th of March 2017, 7pm
Performance: Data Undertaker with Audrey Samson: Thursday, 16th of March 2017, 7.30pm
Artists’ Meeting and Workshop, Video conference London – Linz – Graz: Wednesday, 29th of March 2017, 6 - 9pm
Entrance free, registration via email to esc@mur.at until 24th of March
Finissage: Friday, 28th of April 2017, 7pm
