Captcha

“I’m not a robot”. How many times did you have to press a button like this to proceed to a webpage? A system denominated CAPTCHA was developed to avoid bots - applications that mimic human actions on Internet - colonizing websites created for humans. CAPTCHA is an abbreviation for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart” and also how Alejo Duque, a Colombian artist focused on new and old media, names his artwork for the COMMON GROUNDS exhibition. Observing that it has been increasingly difficult to separate humans from machines in these systems, Alejo Duque creates a loop from different means of communication, especially the ones which include Internet data flow. For that, the artist combines various city layers and screens by using drone images to produce his video installation.

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As surveillance technology gains strength in globalized cities, devices such as drones represent an asymmetrical relationship between humans and machines, due to the fact that, as Alejo Duque points out, a drone could kill without distinguishing. Alejo Duque’s position concerning this matter appears very clear in his work: human beings are still necessary to solve issues machines cannot. However, if we do not control this technology and use it to our benefit, artificial intelligence will progressively take over our lives. This idea fits perfectly with the Edgelands Institute’s purpose of reimagining urban social contracts by reflecting on the control citizens have over the new surveillance technologies.