FAKE ME HARD
2021
On the cutting-edge of art and technology, FAKE ME HARD explores the complex reality of the 21st century with futuristic installations by over 40 artists, performances, and debates. Visitors await an uncanny landscape that they can enter safely, each with their own fake profile. Music-making robots set the tone playfully and with humor. A low hanging light haze leads the way. Do algorithms determine what is fact or fiction? Are human narratives slowly becoming irrelevant? How to survive the post-truth society?
In the year 2021, we can no longer afford to feign that technology is neutral. In these times of deepfake videos and populism, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between ‘real’ and ‘not real’. Algorithms facilitate a web of lies, with direct consequences for society and democracy. Just think of the recent storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters, partly attributed to the largescale dissemination of QAnon theories by algorithms.
Driving those algorithms is the shadowy business model of a handful of all-powerful big tech companies. Platforms such as Facebook and Google use our data to personalize our experience – and to influence us. With our clicking behavior we build our own mirror-palace, a hyper-personalized parallel universe. To speak in Matrix-terms: we can no longer choose between the red and the blue pill, between the truth and blissful ignorance. Only the blue pill is available.
But it is not too late. We don’t have to stand by and watch a new feudal era unfold. We can arm ourselves by becoming ‘robot-proof’ and by making algorithms ‘human aware’. By talking back to AI, we can teach it a language in which there is space for human significance and interpretation. Team Human can reimagine the mirror palace as an ecosystem of freedom and possibilities.
In anticipation of the physical exhibition, starting March 1 visitors are invited to visit the freely accessible FAKE ME HARD Virtual environment. Enter the virtual spaces of AVL Mundo as your favourite avatar and, together with others, experience the exhibition’s first four thought-provoking installations in a game-like setting as a prelude to July/August.
FAKE ME HARD. By the makers of ROBOT LOVE & TEC ART.
In cooperation with AVL Mundo
JUNE 30 – AUGUST 15 2021 during Rotterdam Art Week
Every day from 10.00 – 19.00
Keileweg 18, Rotterdam
Tickets: € 6,-
Tickets (will go on sale soon)
More info: fakemehard.nl