Net-Based Multi Screen Installation
With unprecedented and ever increasing access to mobile phones and the internet, digital hierarchies are being broken. Platforms like TikTok are the new town hall, with ‘influence’ no longer restricted to the urban elite. What have been the missing voices within mainstream narratives? Can their messages truly help shape an inclusive, socially conscious future? What impact does positive content have on its audience?
Unfiltered poses these questions, and more, through the diverse voices of TikTok.
Unfiltered – Tiktok and the Emerging Face of Culture is an immersive installation showcasing the influence of digital accessibility and questioning its impact on public consciousness, visual aesthetics, and identity structures. For each exhibition location, new posts, hashtags and user profiles form local TikToker are researched. And new questions are formulated which appear in large letters in front of the videos like:
How does the next gen telling stories?
Can inclusive platforms create space for all voices?
Are regular people the superstars of the future?
Do messages of social responsibility lead to change?
Can inclusive platforms break gender-specific roles?
How young is too young to become a content creator?
Are all subcultures now global?
India Unfiltered, Space10, India Art Fair, New Delhi
India will soon have the world’s largest population of young people – a generation that has grown up in the digital revolution. This generation will shape the future of this country. Digital hierarchies have been broken by easy access to mobile phones, with platforms like TikTok permeating through the farthest reaches of this country. There is finally a democratisation of creative expression which is no longer restricted to the urban elite. The many India’s within India are now well and truly visible. The raw, unfiltered thoughts of millions breaking barriers of class, caste and gender are coming to the fore.
With ginormous numbers for engagement, what impact can positive messaging of social upliftment have on the larger public consciousness?
But who is in this India? Is it people of the metropolitan cities? Or the people who live in the smaller cities, often called the B towns and C towns. There are multiple India’s within India, and often their representation in the mainstream narratives has been missing.
But with a platform like TikTok, we can get a peek into what the real India looks like, and what it is thinking. So what are the people of India really saying? What ideas are they projecting? What are the causes they support?
Text: Akshat Nauriyal
Swiss Unfiltered, Reithalle, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Swiss Unfiltered, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Switzerland
Credits
A project by Akshat Nauriyal and Marc Lee
Supported by St+art India Foundation, SPACE10, India Art Fair and Pro Helvetia New Delhi
Akshat Nauriyal, or Tahska, is a co-founder of St+art India and a new-media artist interested in the constantly evolving interaction of humans with technology, and its impact on public consciousness. His works are an outcome of what he calls ‘digital existentialism’ – exploring technology as a tool for disruption and activism.
St+art India Foundation is a non-profit organisation that works on art projects in public spaces. The aim of the foundation is to make art accessible to a wider audience by taking it out of the conventional gallery space and embedding it within the cities we live in – making art truly democratic and for everyone.
India Art Fair is Delhi’s annual exhibition aimed at showcasing modern and contemporary art from South Asia. The fair’s programme draws together galleries, artists, private foundations, arts charities, artists’ collectives, national institutions, cultural events and festivals enabling local and international audiences to engage in innovative ways with the cultural history and development of India and the South Asian region.
Pro Helvetia New Delhi is part of the Swiss Arts Council’s worldwide network of liaison offices, working to support and disseminate Swiss arts and culture in South Asia. It promotes cultural exchange, develops and nurtures long-term partnerships, initiates co-productions and supports residencies.