A N A L O G F U T U R I S M

MHTH-2

BC BIERMANN [HVY]: MURALS AND DIGITAL ART INSTALLATIONS

MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN - TWO

Digital Projection: 12’ x 8’
Carnegie Music Hall
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2019

In the early 21st Century, the “self” has become increasingly defined by the accumulation, aggregation, and interpretation of massive amounts of personal data. With the rise of ever-present high-powered mobile devices, social media, and artificial intelligence, our own personal data has become a digital avatar that is potentially “more human than human” [MHTH] and often carries a higher degree of (perceived) value than our physical presence. HVY’s work critically investigates this dilemma by using cultural datasets from the City of Pittsburgh’s Open Data Portal to construct a new version of the self. Specifically, the latitude and longitude of all of the public playgrounds in Pittsburgh were digitally interconnected with a 3D lattice and laid over a wireframe skull mesh. These datasets were chosen because they are representative of a child’s outdoor activity and social engagement. However, these traditional physical, social sites have been increasingly supplanted by impersonalized online activities. As a result, our “selves” are constructed by our accumulated data in social media and virtual playgrounds, rather than real ones.