DÉDALE 1.0
Title : Daedalus 1.0
Year : 2021
Exhibited at :
► Search_Bar #1 : Exposition des diplomé·e·s 2021, sept. 2021, Galerie de L’ÉSAD, Orléans, France
►Titre ?, may. 2022, Centre d’art Transpalette, Bourges, France
► Festival Hop Pop Hop, sept. 2022 (Orléans)
► U.S.B. #2 · + 4, oct. 2022, ÉSAD Orléans, France
We tend to think of the Web as a labyrinth, a rhizome or a network, a moving structure with no way in or out, where every path is a possible right choice. To avoid wasting time and getting lost, artificial ‘intelligences’ create custom profiles fed by data from the analysis of our behaviour. Algorithms suggest calculated trajectories ; they build our digital palaces, prisons and cocoons, with the aim of lightening our wanderings by always providing the right information.
One possible etymology of the word “labyrinth” is “labirion”, a hollowed-out gallery, how can we not think of the Minotaur myth? This labyrinth, custom-built by Daedalus, is not just the monster’s palace or prison: it’s also his grave, where he dies murdered by Theseus. Algorithms control potential paths, they mathematically define the walls of our labyrinths in which our tracks accumulate and where we dig in the sanctuary of our digital death, the landscape of our digital life.
How can we bring to life this landscape carved out by our successive visits to the web? The aim of this research project is to create a protocol that will enable data-visualisations to be drawn using the classic Chinese ink wash technique. The embossing gives the legend. On 26 May 2021, the Google.com page was visited 31 times, so 31 layers of ink are layered on top of each other to create this profile.
