In the last decade, our every activity from finding a lover to reading a novel, has become mediated in some form by the digital world. How far does this change the way we see the world? At a closing keynote for Web Directions, James Bridle recently elaborated on what he has called The New Aesthetic with a great presentation called Waving At The Machines which is well worth a look.
Web Directions Sydney 2011 final from Hunting With Pixels on Vimeo.
James Bridle points out countless examples of how deeply the digital aesthetic has influenced our worldview, from the kind of pixel furniture that Cristian Zuzunaga does:
Cristian Zuzunaga's pixel sofa
... to this sculpture by the author Douglas Coupland:
Orca by Douglas Coupland, Vancouver Convention Center
It's not just about how we see things, but also about how we want to be seen ourselves, or not seen.
Building hidden by camouflage company HyperStealth
Image from CV Dazzle which proposes using haircuts and make up to evade face detection software
... because the imagery of digital age suggests it the new era is not always on our side. We have begun to modify things not only as a homage to communicating digitally, but also so we can attempt to reassert ourselves over the process of that communication. We are, Bridle suggests, waving at machines. Or maybe not waving but drowning.
In the last decade the genre of the keynote speech at digital has become one of the odder forms - at its worst a kind of Babbit-esque hurrah for the shiny future - but at its best, like this, provocative and fun.
