Conference under filters, Conversation du Jeu de Paume

This is the first time I've spoken in public since the start of the pandemic. To cope with the stage fright caused by my lack of a social life, I use filters connected to a video-conferencing site. As I speak, my image projected on the screen behind me transforms into a vintage character, blurring into colorful pixels, a big ginger cat comes to rest on my head interacting with the slightest movement.

Selected excerpts: “In our screen membranes, we become not just intermittent film characters, but spectres among spectres filtered by algorithms. [...] From now on, we put on filters, and our faces are transformed. They are foreign to any referent other than the use of the filter itself. This strangeness captivates the mind and intensely captures our attention. Using filters is like donning the skin of cyberspace to blend into the network ecosystem.

Akin to the famous “Turn on, tune in, drop out” consciousness-expanding motto promoted by Timothy Leary. Cyberspace, the worthy heir of biochemical substance, is now encapsulated in social networks and filter bubbles. Since the pandemic, hardly any of our activities escape the communication interfaces of digital platforms, which bring us into intensive contact with each other and permanently heighten the sensation of playing out our lives like in a movie. If you don't like this world, put on another!