CYBERCY: EXPLORING THE POST-INTERNET Human Matrix

 The hyperreal, an ubiquitous kind of truth indistinguishable from a non-augmented reality, is found in Instagram filters, news articles, and throughout our digital footprint. No longer a fearful prediction for the future, our real (analog) lives af…

 

The hyperreal, an ubiquitous kind of truth indistinguishable from a non-augmented reality, is found in Instagram filters, news articles, and throughout our digital footprint. No longer a fearful prediction for the future, our real (analog) lives after the Internet are inextricably melded with our digital lives. The intangibility of our digital idiosyncrasies begets a need to align both our avatars and our "in real life" selves. As we each traverse the Internet, what we are exposed to morphs and evolves according to what a complex set of algorithms believe we wish to see. Whether or not we embrace or reject our curated feeds and targeted advertisements makes no difference. In either scenario we follow a self-fulfilling prophecy and secure our roles in a virtual condition-a cybercy

Curated by Caitlin Goebel in collaboration with GOCA Director Daisy McGowan,  CYBERCY  brings together an array of artists who explore the ways in which the Internet has affected how we perceive public and private spaces; how we navigate the real, the digital, and the hyperreal; and the ways we connect and interact with one another on and off line.

Psychic Barber

A collaboration between Los Angeles -based artist collective FinishingSchool and New York based artist Yucef Merh, is an interactive installation that, "conjures intimacy and transformation in a private setting situated in a public space." Enclosed in a glass-walled structure, hairstylists who also possess a psychic gift will cut and style participant's hair based on insights gained via the experience of a psychic reading. Originally presented as part of Side Street Projects, and then later at the Riverside Art Museum, a third installation with planned performances at GOCA moves the project into an antecedent loop of projection and performance on a national scale.

W 3F I: COLORADO SPRINGS

Denver based artists Chris Coleman and Laleh Mehran's large scale installation is "a social movement, a philosophy, a path to responsible connectivity between our online/offline lives and to each other," complete with a project manifesto. The W3Fi installation, which has been exhibited nationally and internationally, is reimagined for each iteration, making it at once site specific and archival-a tangible model of the Internet. W3FI will undergo a significant update.

American Reflexxx

A short film directed by Alli Coates which documents Cyber-feminist performance artist Signe Pierce as she struts down a busy street in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The unscripted social experiment resulted in a "heart wrenching technicolor spectacle," a cinematic critique of gender stereotypes, mob mentality, and how suggestions can quickly become truths.