ART21 - THINGS DON’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS

In an age where all aspects of our lives are mediated through technology, contemporary artists are crucial voices in defining how we engage with these new tools. Over coffee at a Brooklyn cafe, artists and friends Morehshin Allahyari, American Artist, and Mimi Ọnụọha gathered to explore the complex relationships between technology, knowledge, power, and identity. “It’s clear that a lot of the world orders that we have inherited won’t work,” says Ọnụọha. “But that’s the space where artists are most needed.” From American Artist’s interrogation of social media and surveillance technologies, to Ọnụọha’s work calling attention to the data that is missing from our technological systems, to Allahyari’s resistance against the techniques of digital colonialism, these artists offer new possibilities for navigating our digital world through an artistic practice.