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Images based on interviews with Uber drivers in Bangalore about how they perceive the company, highlighting gaps between the lived reality of Indian Uber employees and the white Western figures they believe represent the company
A new exhibition opening this week, Privacy Techtonics presents the latest findings from this ongoing three-year research project alongside multimedia artworks, film screenings, podcasts, artist interviews and commissioned texts. While the exhibition is open for the next month, different artworks will take over the space each week, curated by local artist Candace Jacobs, to resonate with the research themes and make us think more about how we live in an increasingly digital world.
The research examines WhatsApp in its biggest market, India, as an example of how big tech companies, which increasingly focus on private rather than public digital spaces, can influence political life. The artworks in the exhibition touch on issues such as software designed to influence people’s choices and governments using spyware to infiltrate private WhatsApp groups, raising important questions about the balance of public and private interests in the digital age.
Dr Philippa Williams explained: “India has more WhatsApp users than any other democracy, but while this technology is designed to enhance democratic life, it can also undermine it. The platform can be used by ordinary citizens to discuss personal political views, but most importantly, we have seen parties use it not only to organize, but also to communicate and influence potential voters.
“The Indian government holds WhatsApp responsible for spreading misinformation, and its privacy policy update in 2021 provoked public outrage. WhatsApp is marketed as a personal safe place to communicate with trusted contacts, but our research found that the “digital living room” is not a safe or secure space for everyone. We need to recognize how the idea of digital privacy sometimes benefits the big tech halls more than consumers, depending on who you are and where you live.”
Dr Lipika Kamra concluded: “Our exhibition combines extensive research and creative works to explore the complex relationship we have with data and technology, inspire questions about our lives and futures in an increasingly digital world – and spark conversations about what alternate worlds we could create you want or need to create. Who has a right to digital privacy? How is privacy constructed and regulated, and by whom? Can we go on like this and do we want to?’
The Privacy Techtonics exhibition is free to visit online at www.otoka.org and in person at the Broadway Gallery in Nottingham from Friday 11 November to Sunday 4 December. Artists whose work will be featured in the exhibition include Ben Grosser, Forensic Architecture, James Bridle, Joey Holder, Libby Heaney, Tara Kelton and Yuri Pattison.
Learn more about Queen Mary’s research behind the exhibition at whatsapppolitics.com.
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