From the Society of the Spectacle to the Consciousness Industry

Having brains and minds are the factories of the XXI century, as of now, we are already in the “mind-screen” labor era. Whether it is you who are sitting in front of the screen absent-mindedly or me using the cellphone to write or click on an App, we are all mental labours under the cognitive capitalist system at all times. The individual’s singularities are the data and information that are jointly constructing the mechanical consciousness that represents the greater self. Having the collective memory exteriorized in the search engine, we live in the filter bubbles of the echo chamber created by the search engine and social media. In fact, we are being delicately and meticulously controlled. The massive, oversupplied information has become the necessary evil for the existence of an attention economy, intercepting the real depiction of the world that we are situated. In fact, we are data and information. The carnal body is the twin of  information. Thus, we are all overworked labours in the industrial production lines of this emerging and immense network consciousness.

Warren Neidich, the American artist who participated in the 2022 Taipei Digital Art Festival, will showcase again From the Society of the Spectacle to the Consciousness Industry, the large neon sculpture, which was entrusted by the DAC, remodified in response to the spatial conditions of Digital Art Center, Taipei. Although neon works are noticeably outdated techno-items, they are still peculiar spectacles that mark the consumer society. The flickering neon phrases all over the space are like the brain neurons digitized and informatized by big data. Exhibiting at the same time is the artwork referred to by the artist as “Anonymous Q” —Pizzagate: From Rumor to Delusion — an experimental documentary filmed in YouTube style. It is inspired by a real social incident triggered by fake news during the American Presidential Election in 2016, exploring the absurdity of the post-truth society and the cognitive power of the netizens that shakes up the network by using misinformation and hate speeches as their weapons.