BlackBox

An immersive installation exploring one narrative through the ubiquitous sensors of our everyday lives. 

The smarts of Smart Things require them to continually witness human behavior and then reconstruct a world for them to operate in. Yet in contrast to the assumption of the Big Data approach what emerges as the sum of data streams is not reality, but a very specific perspective shaped by the desire to monetize private human experiences. 

Smart Things are secretive. They are black boxes designed to be inaccessible to everybody but those who speak their language, and yet we have found ways to extract clues from them wherever a human story is told in data. The digital age challenges us to judge our lives based on small gestures and fragmented news. But how well we are able to navigate these new data points depends on how well we are able to inhabit their point of view. blackbox explores how technological literacy enables and limits us in passing judgement on ourselves and others.

Sarah Franzl presented blackbox at Vienna Design Week 2019.