press release:
THOMAS WEBB
EXERCISE IN HOPELESS NOSTALGIA – WORLD WIDE WEBB
14 August 2020 – 14 August 2021
Opening: Friday, 14 August, 7pm CET
Online tour through the multiplayer simulation with Webb: Friday, 14 August, 9pm cet
Instagram Live – Webb in conversation with Johann König: Thursday, 20 August, 4pm cet Uhr, @koeniggalerie
This
Friday, 14 August 7pm cet,
KÖNIG GALERIE launches the
digital solo show by the British artist
Thomas Webb who is
following the footsteps of his father, programmer
Martin Webb. His
WORLD WIDE WEBB is a virtual world driven by Artificial Intelligence and real-time data. Webb created a world in which
data is a common property.
What if companies collecting data aren’t allowed to sell the data but are required to share it? What if data is not used in the interest of a company? How do people feel when an AI tailors a life for them based on their personality, choices they make, and things they enjoy through technology? The digital visitor enters through the browser on a smartphone, and is invited to do an exercise in hopeless nostalgia. The
WORLD WIDE WEBB is a multiplayer simulation, a digital exhibition space, and a world full of art and characters the visitor interacts with. Webb also recreates the social spontaneity of the world pre-Covid-19.
Cambridge Analytica had Facebook users take quizzes designed to summarize their personality, using the harvested data to sway voters during the 2016 US presidential election. Webb instead trains artificially intelligent avatars that are capable of sensing the players emotional and logical decisions, allowing these in-game characters to change their narratives in real-time. Upon completion of the simulation (ca. 1h), Webb reveals insights into his algorithm. The algorithm is based on the same personality test theorem used by Cambridge Analytica, categorising players by their openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism through the lens of Webb’s experience in the digital age.
EXERCISE IN HOPELESS NOSTALGIA is part of the exhibition series THE ARTIST IS ONLINE, curated by Anika Meier and Johann König, which focuses on art in the digital age. The exhibition can be experienced via the app KÖNIG GALERIE and the following link: https://webb.game/ There's an ad hoc app for the iPhone
Thomas Webb is an artist, hacker and coder. His artworks question systems, social media and technology, identifying the consequences of our daily dependence on software and hardware. He harnesses electrical engineering and computer programming to create AI, deep learning, microelectronics and real-time data as mediums. He juxtaposes a reflection on technology and contemporary life to explore the social dynamics of the digital age.
