What is the function
of art in the era of digital globalization?
How can one think of
art institutions in an age defined by planetary civil war, growing
inequality, and proprietary digital technology? The boundaries of
such institutions have grown fuzzy. They extend from a region where
the audience is pumped for tweets to a future of “neurocurating,”
in which paintings surveil their audience via facial recognition and
eye tracking to assess their popularity and to scan for suspicious
activity.
In Duty Free Art,
filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl wonders how we can appreciate, or
even make art, in the present age.
What can we do when
arms manufacturers sponsor museums, and some of the world’s most
valuable artworks are used as currency in a global futures market
detached from productive work? Can we distinguish between
information, fake news, and the digital white noise that bombards our
everyday lives? Exploring subjects as diverse as video games,
WikiLeaks files, the proliferation of freeports, and political
actions, she exposes the paradoxes within globalization, political
economies, visual culture, and the status of art production.