COOKIES, co-organised by the cultural organisations TILT Platform and M.A.M.A. Contemporary, explores the concepts of consent, acceptance, care and surveillance as they are shaped in the ever-changing digital environment. Greek and international artists and art groups present different stories around the internet, which is approached as both an experience and a medium, while exploring the nature and use of the information we create within it.

Through paintings, video projections, films and installations, the exhibition focuses on the data we produce at any given moment. It explores the ways in which digital technology is reshaping our understanding of the world and raises questions about the power dynamics that develop between people and technology.

The exhibition is curated by Fotini Vergidou.

Between the literal meaning of the word cookies and the technological term describing the small text files that websites create as we visit them, the artists aim to highlight the digital processes of monitoring, exploiting and educating modern man, resulting in the manipulation of his social and commercial behaviour.

The commodification of everyday life is achieved through the composition of a constantly updated profile that we ourselves update in real time, thanks to the data we generate while browsing the Internet. Our digital identity is sold and bought without our knowledge, and returned to us as personalised content for consumption.

However, cookies are proposed to us to make our Internet experience easier, faster, and smoother. After all, who wants to enter the same information over and over again instead of enjoying the content of a website almost automatically? All it takes is for us to accept a lengthy – and often incomprehensible – contract. Its deliberately off-putting presentation makes our acceptance mechanical.

The importance of our acceptance is determined by the choices we are offered. The abuse of our consent starts with the simple, short question “Accept all cookies“. Thus, a new form of “pedagogy” is formed, where we are trained to consider the results of algorithms as the only reliable ones, to adapt to shorter and shorter waiting times and to accept indifferent terms and conditions. At the same time, the irreversibility of our decisions (yes/no) remains deliberately blurred.

The behaviours we adopt on the Internet are influenced by psychological approaches and algorithmic practices. Our manipulation through artificial intelligence tools begins by constructing a customised set of interests, expectations, fears and prejudices, aiming to create a sense of familiarity with them. The synthetic emotional bonds created influence the formation of our opinions and ideas, further complicating our relationship with our digital identity.

What can we expect from a future driven by the imperatives of automation and artificial intelligence, while at the same time choice and free will are reduced to manufactured dilemmas? The COOKIES exhibition invites us to rethink the importance of our digital privacy, shedding light on the dangers of digital surveillance and machine consent.

The cookies break into pieces, crumble and remind us of the traces – fragments that we leave behind us with every move we make on the internet. Our digital profile is ready and we will consume painlessly.

The projects of Browser Based and Nikos Synnos are new commissions.

Visual Identity Design: Eleni Simantiraki

Artists Participating: 

!Mediengruppe Bitnik, Browser Based, Silvia Dal Dosso (Clusterduck), Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Sungsil Ryu, Ηypercomf, Κonstantinos Economou, Vicky Pericleous, Αndreas Savva, Ζoe Samourka, E. Skourti, Νikos Σynnos, Youla Chatzigeorgiou, Yannis Christides

Curated by: Fotini Vergidou

Organized by: TILT Platform & M.A.M.A Contemporary

Venue: MISC Athens, Toussa Botsari 20, Athens

Duration: 18 December 2024 – 07 February 2025

Opening Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 12:00 – 20:00 & Wednesday, Saturday: 15:00 – 19

The exhibition is supported by the Cyprus Ministry of Culture.