ARTICLE⟶ Exploring the world of TWIFSY
Take a look at the themes and ideas behind the incredible installation TWIFSY (The world is fine, save yourself), including thoughts from artist Peter Thiedeke and digital rights lawyer Lizzie O’Shea.
In recent years our world has become dominated by almost daily headlines on breakthrough developments in AI and the rapid advance of big tech.
It is this sense of urgency that underpins Peter Thiedeke’s TWIFSY (The world is fine, save yourself).
Currently installed in the atrium of the T&G Building in Melbourne, this thought-provoking artwork challenges us to pause and consider where technology is leading us, and question what kind of future we are building.
The installation
Taking cues from speculative design theory, TWIFSY is born from research into our societal transition towards technological determinism and monopolistic ownership of Big Data – our shift from human to a post-human condition.
TWIFSY’s modular, mixed-media panels glow with a shifting colour spectrum surface, flickering then dissolving to reveal a hidden world beneath – a world populated by hundreds of tiny human-like figures enacting utopic fictions.
Peter Thiedeke is a Queensland-based interdisciplinary image-maker. With a PHD in networked imaging technologies, Peter works at the intersection of art and design, with a focus on post-digital critique.
With TWIFSY, he is asking audiences to imagine a future where the real world and digital world had coalesced.
The challenges of new horizons
TWIFSY draws inspiration from speculative futurism, science fiction narratives, and innovative exhibits of the past – in particular General Motors Corporation’s (GMC) “Highways & Horizons” exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Often referred to as ‘Futurama’ this dioramic installation famously designed by Norman Bel Geddes, speculated on a utopic future, promising solutions to the world’s problems through technological advancement.
Video: “To New Horizons” documents the ‘Futurama’ exhibit in GM’s “Highways and Horizons” pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Like the “New Horizons” proudly touted in Futurama, TWIFSY is rooted in this idea of technological determinism. Peter explains this as “a belief that technology will always improve our life and that it can solve any problem,” and is quick to point out that history has taught us otherwise.
His greatest concerns are freedom, and social and economic equality – especially the power inequality he sees in big tech.
“We’ve got a handful of companies that have the largest capital growth and the largest capital asset in human history. Between just a few companies, and it’s growing at this rapid exponential rate,” he says.
“Everything you say, do, think, feel, write – it’s being recorded, monetised, sold on, and all of that input and energy that you put out is not returned”
While we are already seeing copyright battles stemming from AI use and growing concerns about privacy, the evidence is mounting that societal and legal frameworks are unable to keep up.
“Accountability is a big problem, but the greatest challenge is freedom, human rights, maintaining a sense of agency”, he says.
Human Rights in the age of AI
“Getting machines to see people as people, rather than, say, data points or digitals subjects, is a challenge,” says digital rights lawyer and activist Lizzie O’Shea.
A guest speaker at the recent TWIFSY Lunchbox Talks, she agrees a human-first approach to these challenges is vital.
“There are radical incentives to outsource decision making and responsibility to machines for various reasons, with sometimes disastrous results,” she explains. ” “We must demand a different approach; which requires organising and agitating.”
After years working in public interest litigation, Lizzie formed the not-for-profit agency Digital Rights Watch in 2016 to ensure fairness, freedoms and fundamental rights for all people in the digital world. She says it’s critical that the development and deployment of sophisticated technology involve a human rights approach.
“That is, respect for privacy in the collection and use of personal information, and proactively identifying and managing risks of discriminatory and harmful outcomes. Increasingly, as people see these systems in action, including the injustices they create, there are growing calls for this kind of positive friction,” she says.
“It’s not about cramping innovation, but rather limiting predatory, discriminatory and harmful developments and uses of technology,” she says.
Peter Thiedeke also stresses that there is a real urgency to the issue, suggesting that the world of TWIFSY is not a ‘possible’ future but the one we are already well on the way to.
“The first wave of AI, the recommendation algorithms that were developed in the early 2000s, they’re fully in place, so we’re already halfway there,” he explains. “What we really need is some serious leadership. There are very few countries around the world that are regulating and holding big tech to account.”
Who’s at the controls?
In the face of these concerns it can be tempting to think about technology in terms of good or bad.
Echoing similar statements from last year’s Now or Never Art Trail artists Jon McCormack and Georgie Pinn, Peter notes that it’s the people behind the controls that ultimately determine the way technology is used.
“Technology on its own is neutral. It’s the people that matter,” he says. “The real challenge here is, particularly when we’re talking about AI, is the idea of ethics… who’s guiding it in terms of its ethical decision making process.”
Lizzie also notes that technology is simply a tool, and we can choose how we use it.
“To reimagine a quote by Marx: big data and AI can help us interpret the world, the point is to change it, ” she says.
“We shouldn’t accept that machines are inherently better decision makers than humans, but they can tell us about things we might struggle to see. That vision is a powerful and exciting tool!” she says. “One of the reasons I love working in this space is that I see the immense potential of technology, but the problem is that too much of this potential is directed at generating profit.”
Art as a catalyst
It’s clear that there is an urgent need for greater scrutiny and action, and Peter hopes that TWIFSY can be a catalyst for people to start a discussion.
“I love the idea that people will find meaning of their own [in TWIFSY] and generate their own thinking and thoughts” he said. “I really would like to know what people feel and what’s the general position in Australian society right now. “
Lizzie sees art as a vehicle better suited for raising this kind of issue. “Certainly artists are better at generating exciting discussions when compared to policy wonks and legal nerds.”
She also thinks attitudes are starting to change. “I think we are starting to see a shift not just in how we understand the virtual and real worlds, but also people’s desire to be involved in shaping this phenomenon, not just acceding to it,” she says
Recent news and calls for regulation support this, and there are signs that pressure is mounting as more people become concerned with the ethics of how technology is used and the kind of future we are building.
For Peter, the real question is whether we are ready to act.
“How far are people prepared to go to protect their own human rights?” he asks. “I’m hoping to find out. Do we have a sense of urgency? Is this a real thing?’ If so, that’s fantastic. If not, why not?”
Find out more about TWIFSY (The word is fine, save yourself)
TWIFSY is presented in partnership with the T&G Building for Now or Never.
Words by Santana Sandow