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Ai Weiwei's 'Hansel & Gretel' is a surveillance playground
Should you Instagram an art exhibit? Taking an art selfie might mean participating in the aesthetic experience, hacking and remixing it with your presence. Then again, maybe commoditizing the affair for likes detracts from art's ability to make us slow down and be immersed in something outside ourselves. At Hansel & Gretel, an interactive installation about modern surveillance by Ai Weiwei, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, selfies are part of the experience. The installation begins in a 55,000-square-foot dystopian playground. Set within New York's Park Avenue Armory, the hall is cool, dark and quiet, giving the illusion of privacy. But everyone who enters is tracked relentlessly from above by 56 computers with infrared cameras, projecting bird's-eye images of visitors onto the ground next to them, outlined with red boxes. Start walking and these ghostly portraits remain, leaving a digital trail. The spying feels aggressive when whirring drones survey the area, but they're just a distraction when everyone is already being tracked in silent, subtle ways without escape.
AdBlock replacing ads with anti-censorship messages tomorrow
We've seen Malaysia ban access to Medium and Russia do the same for Wikipedia, so if you thought Amnesty International would sit on the sidelines for World Day Against Cyber Censorship this year, you're sorely mistaken. On March 12th, the human rights organization is teaming with AdBlock to replace online ads with messages from artist Ai Weiwei, Edward Snowden and Russian punk rockers Pussy Riot -- themselves all victims of overzealous government censorship.
Ai Weiwei's recent London art exhibit is available in VR
If you missed Ai Weiwei's recent exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, don't fret. The work of the filmmaker, photographer and sculptor is available online in 360-degree video. An internet-based exhibition includes all of the imagery, video and audio needed to navigate through Weiwei's recently-displayed catalog.
