School of Art - Theses

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End date: 2017 × Start date: 2017 × Type: Masters Research thesis × Subject: 3D printing × Subject: installation ×

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    Mishandling the human: virtual surveillance and actualised error
    Nicholas, Shane Leigh ( 2017)
    This project is a practiced-based inquiry into the relationship between physical reality and virtual worlds in a period where digital technology has substantially transformed how we interact with our surroundings. The research investigates this relationship with emphasis on the interdependent nature of neural networks, extended consciousness and online surveillance. The research explores the increasing use of digital surveillance and the potential for the surrounding world to be restructured on feedback derived from algorithms. As the neural networks filtering such data are programmed with values reflecting the ideology of liberal capitalism, the results will inevitably be skewed in favour of this perspective. As smart devices and their users are contained within this feedback loop the paper considers how these systems of surveillance influence the perception of human identity. The resulting work responds to the use of surveillance technology, focusing on gaps in information and distortions in representation that occur through this filtering and assumed information. The works question the nature of online surveillance from a posthuman perspective and explore the potential problems that can occur with the adoption of cavalier attitudes towards these technologies. I have created three systems to reproduce the human form based on the mishandling of data. The resulting forms echo the fundamental contradictions inherent in these systems. The artwork produced through this process draws from limitations common to neural networks that process collected data. By decontextualizing, filtering, fragmenting and reconstructing data to create distorted versions of the original, the resulting sculptures present a vision of how systems alter subject matter when rendering a model from reality.