98 Windows, but the tasks ain’t done…. The ironic ideology behind the closing chapter in a trilogy of works exploring contemporary life, from the perspective of digital immigrants. For 98 Windows, their retro-futuristic vibe meets social psychology, as they explore human interaction and the price of connectedness through the personification of the wolf.
Technological development has had a drastic impact on our culture and collective lifestyles, with ‘speed’ being the motivating factor; the beating heart of modernisation. Over the past 200 years, our world has spun into dynamic motion, with digitalisation accelerating its pace exponentially over the past few decades. Change occurs at such a rate that each generations experience of the world is slightly different to the last. Brothers Christoph and Florin belong to a micro generation of flux in the early 80’s called Xennials. This unique period between Generation X and Y, had an analogue childhood while also experiencing the digital revolution in adulthood. The defining characteristic of this group is how they experienced technology and received information about the world.
98 Windows is a body of work acknowledging our very deep attachment to technology and the freedom it proposes. Featured assemblages challenge our attention in more ways than one, as they embody the distractedness that has come to define our lives. We almost equate our ability to multitask with our human capital, projecting how busy we are to demonstrate our social value. The Low Bros harness this idea by constructing moments of single consumption, populated by multiple stimuli.
Their painterly approach also comes into focus as they explore the impact of the organic looking at the Artist. Juxtaposing areas of hand painted canvas against printed digital reproductions, they question the value of craftsmanship. What importance does it still hold? Technology has empowered us in maximising our potential at a fraction of the time, but at what cost? With so much opportunity to engage, how effective are we actually being? A computer screen with 98 open windows, has almost become the status symbol of our time.
Through an assemblage of mixed media, the artists acknowledge the consequences of our acceleration towards an evermore digital future, offering a visual perspective of our collective self reimagined through the Low Bro filter. The irony of early software models like Windows 98, was that they failed if too many programs ran concurrently. With the modern expectation of time and speed; 96, 97, 98 windows isn’t only possible, it is encouraged to facilitate our ‘efficiency’. Technological advancement appears boundless but as this accelerates, how are we to keep pace operating the same organic cognitive system? Do we accept a state of desynchronisation, or is the expectation that we adapt to the next evolutionary stage?
Text by Charlotte Pyatt