Abstract:
Inhuman Transaction is a collection of ‘self-critical’ digital works of art. These works explore the conflict between the promise and threat of new technology. Virtual realities, Artificial Intelligence, Web 3.0, Cryptocurrencies and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represent an emerging way of life ‘augmented’ by digital technology. This new model envisions a techno-utopia that transcends traditional hegemonic structures, makes us more connected as a species and accesses virtual worlds of infinite possibilities. The danger is that these new technologies perpetuate oppressive capitalist desires, leave individuals disembodied, disconnected and disillusioned, all at the cost of our physical world. Inhuman Transaction seeks to critique digital technologies in terms of structural qualities including proprietary ownership, virtualisation, energy consumption and white cisgender dominance. Mediums include interactive NFTs, moving image, computer simulation and digitally generated sculpture. The guiding theme of the self-critical work of art seeks to simultaneously explain, express and critique the medium from within itself as a form of cultural self-evaluation.