SPOTTED: Metropolis M about Luka Knez’ installation SIT AND SWIPE
- Design
Every year, the magazine Metropolis M releases a Graduation Special, featuring work from various alumni who graduated as visual artists. Luka Knez graduated from Crossmedia Design in Enschede and is one of the alumni featured in the special. Metropolis M asked Luka: "What is the story behind your work?”
Luka Knez’ installation SIT AND SWIPE looks like a waiting room – an environment in which the use of phones is common and where we swipe restlessly and thoughtlessly. Participants are invited to sit down and pick up one of the phones lying on the chairs. A red dot moves to the edge of the screen of the smartphone, where a collision with the edge causes an explosive climax. If you move the dot in the opposite direction, that moment is delayed, which means you have to keep on swiping endlessly to prevent an explosion. As you do, the tension mounts. This action reflects our desire for the next dopamine hit – in this case, provided by swiping in the opposite direction and surviving.
‘I'm interested in human behaviour, and in particular in our interaction with new technologies’, explains Knez. ‘My work is about how we are practically constantly in the digital domain. I want to reflect on how enmeshed we are with it and how the repetitive movements we use in social media apps are deeply imprinted in our souls. Swiping left, up, right and down serves as an extension of our body, by means of which we happily and hungrily move through the digital era.’
It is Knez’ intention to puncture this urge with his work: ‘I want people to sit down in my installation as they would on public transport or in a waiting room or library. However, there is one difference: instead of scrolling through all kinds of content, they see just a moving red dot. How bizarre does it seem if there is no content at all? I want to get people thinking about the gesture of swiping itself, which by now feels like we were born doing it.’ The repetitive movement becomes a metaphor for our endless search for fleeting rewards.
‘I hope it stimulates people to think critically about the influence of technological developments.’ Knez doesn't see the role of technology as being exclusively negative, but he wonders whether the benefits are worth it. ‘Of course there are good aspects to it, but I believe it is important to consider the pros and cons and not blindly embrace scientific progress.’
Author: Gerda van de Glind, writer and curator.