Sculpture, Installations & Wearables > A Mask for Late-Stage Capitalism

A Mask for Late-Stage Capitalism confronts the prejudice and predation of algorithmic advertising, using information monetized by Facebook’s ad services to literally mask its wearer’s identity. The data is arrayed over the face on 12 LCD screens, each dedicated to targetable personal traits from the benign (age, primary language) to intrusive (algorithmically-inferred “major life events” and political leanings) to dangerous and indefensible (personal crises, GPS coordinates). The wearer can cycle through multiple individuals’ datasets by turning a knob over the left ear, masking themselves with the (literally) superficial presentation of (figuratively) superficial data.