Flay the Image, Excoriate the Algorithm is an interactive light and sound-based installation. The electromagnetic and capacitive sensors in the installation activate a series of coloured flashing lights and trigger an overwhelmingly loud noise that floods the gallery space. The rotation of coloured lights illuminates the surface of a billboard via a networked DMX lighting bar. With each changing light a different image becomes visible, revealing images of crowds sourced from the internet. The events of 2020 have drawn an incredible focus to the crowd, from developments in long-range facial recognition technologies to the implementation of contact tracing systems, for tracking both the spread of COVID-19 and attendance at protests.
The work draws explores contemporary anxieties around big data processing and surveillance, and brings attention to the fact that by appearing in public, even in the middle of a crowd, we are always surrendering our personal data through passive interaction with networked systems. This installation was originally intended to interact with the shifting mass of bodies, now significantly reduced due to social distancing guidelines. By interrogating the link between the data disseminated by an individual’s devices and the data that the crowd itself produces, the installation calls into question what might get lost or amplified in the signal and noise of the data of the crowd.