Looking Glass
Today the presence of digital screens in almost every sphere of society seems almost banal, such is their ubiquity. Meanwhile a generation of young ‘digital natives’ cannot recall a pre-internet dark age when our lives were not heavily mediated by technology.
Despite the enormously powerful computer systems that surround us, often accompanying us in our pockets, life for many young people in the West seemingly continues unchanged; children grow up and go to college and university in the physical world to discover interests, acquire knowledge and forge relationships. However, the time they spend absorbed in front of the screen’s glow– whether for work or leisure - is ever increasing with technology now heavily integrated as part of the learning experience. They accept this new reality with the typical insouciance of youth, barely aware that we are living through changes that would have been considered, until only recently, material fitting of science fiction. Many of us, young and old, embrace technology with almost religious zeal; for the promise of instant knowledge, endless distraction, and a previously unimaginable degree of control over our lives. But at what cost?
What does our relationship to technology mean for consciousness and our conception of ourselves when we occupy the virtual and material world concurrently? Where will our unquestioning embrace of technology ultimately lead us? What does it mean to be a flesh and blood human being in a world designed, simulated and overseen by our machines?
This image from an ongoing series taken within British educational institutions, addresses the anxieties that surround our new divided condition.
Despite the enormously powerful computer systems that surround us, often accompanying us in our pockets, life for many young people in the West seemingly continues unchanged; children grow up and go to college and university in the physical world to discover interests, acquire knowledge and forge relationships. However, the time they spend absorbed in front of the screen’s glow– whether for work or leisure - is ever increasing with technology now heavily integrated as part of the learning experience. They accept this new reality with the typical insouciance of youth, barely aware that we are living through changes that would have been considered, until only recently, material fitting of science fiction. Many of us, young and old, embrace technology with almost religious zeal; for the promise of instant knowledge, endless distraction, and a previously unimaginable degree of control over our lives. But at what cost?
What does our relationship to technology mean for consciousness and our conception of ourselves when we occupy the virtual and material world concurrently? Where will our unquestioning embrace of technology ultimately lead us? What does it mean to be a flesh and blood human being in a world designed, simulated and overseen by our machines?
This image from an ongoing series taken within British educational institutions, addresses the anxieties that surround our new divided condition.
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