Compiler: Are / You / Actually

A quiz on online idleness!

Are / You / Actually asks participants about their time spent online and general perception of time well spent. A series of short agree/disagree style questions is interspersed with chances to write and sketch personalised responses. As they complete the questions, an abstracted visualisation of their answers begins to develop. This visualisation reacts in real time to answers and their level of interaction with the page, creating a space to play with the aesthetics and underlying structures of meditative apps and games.

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The quiz encourages participants to think of their mouse or touchscreen as a ‘smart camera’, and contemplate how these devices and the data we produce with them are part of complex processes related to Surveillance Capitalism, even in our idle time.

Are / You / Actually was commissioned by Phoenix in early 2020 in response to the theme of ‘idleness’ online, curated by Anoushka Goodwin. Published at a time of continuing disruption due to the coronavirus pandemic, this theme and the resulting artwork have taken on a new urgency as many of us have been forced to spend even more of our time occupying online spaces.