To what extent do ordinary citizens grasp the true implications of data collection in their everyday lives? Stories of how data is being used to influence politics and target citizens, based on their psychological makeup, are now a regular occurrence; vested interests playing on our deepest fears and manipulating our prejudices.
In 2017 Rua Red Arts Centre launched a new socio-political programme which puts People, Place and Politics at the core of everything they deliver. As part of this ethos students from the Future Makers Collective were given a brief by renowned Russian artist Andrei Molodkin to research systems that control our lives. This body of research was created alongside his exhibition ‘Fallout Pattern’ and was informed by the current climate of data leaks, political propaganda and collusion.
This week long event and exhibition – Data is the New Oil – marked the culmination of this phase of the students’ research path, and included a process talk that explored emerging themes.
