As Internet users, we produce unimaginable amounts of data every day. When we use the Internet, our digital double is created from the information we produce – a profile that we don’t know what it looks like or what purposes it is used for. We think that the content shown to us online is directed directly to us, but it is created for our digital persona, which can be monetized in countless ways. Digital giants monitor all user interactions with their systems. Social media gives us an illusory sense of control over what data we give to those who watch us, and consequently to online corporations. Perfectly cropped frames, as in Katarzyna Wyszkowska’s painting “The Frame” shown at the Import Export gallery exhibition, are meant to show only what we want to be seen. However, the flow of data is much broader than what we consciously post on portals. If artificial intelligence were to generate our online image, it would resemble the one in Wyszkowska’s painting “Noise in the Sense of Large Number of Small Events,” rather than the aesthetic Instagram feed as we imagine it. On it, the artist has created a collage of quotes, medical diagnoses issued by teleporters, conspiracy theories heard, or information from places we will never visit, down to saved bookmarks we will never look at again. Using the Internet and mobile applications, we consciously consent to the processing of our data, hoping that the algorithms they use will improve our daily lives. Starting with searching for offers that suit our needs, ending with choosing the right partner. For app developers, fulfilling our need is tantamount to losing a customer, which is why the most popular dating apps are closer to gambling games, which provide us with constant access to adrenaline, constantly tickling our reward system. Gamification of love is not a phenomenon brought to us by dating sites. Lee Mackinnon points out the ludic nature of medieval “love games” in which men competed for the favor of women. Therefore, Katarzyna Wyszkowska in her painting “Data dating” combines the motifs of gambling and the medieval ethos of chivalry, illustrating the genealogy of the mechanisms of modern dating applications. Katarzyna Wyszkowska also explores the ghostly themes of data life on the Internet, exploring the concept of the “zombie Internet.” Social networks and forums are flooded with content produced by bots and algorithms, instead of by actual users. Automated comments, AI graphics or deep fakes intertwine neatly with posts written by humans, blurring the line between real content and artificial noise created to mimic activity, spread misinformation or improve statistics. (…)

Gabi Skrzypczak, curator