Photographic Alphabet: T is for Brandy Trigueros

Facial Recognition, 2017. The privacy paradox where the invasiveness of technology is becoming commonplace. © Brandy Trigueros

Welcome to The Dadabyte Theater:​ a cyberspace of mixed timeline and an ode to the Dadaists and Bauhausian artists of the 20th century. As opposed to the crush of steel, we are currently facing a crush of data within the present technological information revolution. Using the studio as a stage for this in-camera self-portrait work, I reflect a theatricalization of the “real”, an attempt to find balanced modes of being in a hyper-connected, ever increasing, mechanical society dominated by technology.

Fragmentation, 2017. The body has become fragmented, traces of us scattered throughout the data-sphere. There is a restructuring of the self, dismantling and resemblance through the prosthetic guise of technology. © Brandy Trigueros

Surveillance, 2017. Everything we watch, read and do becomes a cyber fingerprint. © Brandy Trigueros

By using products of industry, I aim to illustrate the constraints these new technologies present and chose to explore my own agency and autonomy through this work. Parts of my body recede into the imagined dark spaces of history and the Internet, as other parts are being shaped and forced to conform to expectations of femaleness within regimented societal structures. The female body is historically regimented and contorted – from the ruff, the corset, the bra to the current data stream of selfies, social network cyborg identities and political dismantling of our rights.

Home Theater, 2017. The collapsed iris of the Kodak Carousel represents a very specific time when people would document their experiences, yet this was the home theater if you had the money. © Brandy Trigueros

Information Proliferation, 2017. The constant barrage of media assault under the current U.S. presidency causes information/misinformation overload; the demi-god of computational propaganda. © Brandy Trigueros

Growing up, I experienced generational shifts in technology, passing out of the pre-digital to digital – we are crossing into the new frontier. Autonomous machines of war, labor, care, companionship and other technological systems of control and comfort are being produced within this dizzying systemic capitalist merry-go-round. Throughout history, each system, from a monarchy to corporatocracy, has forced segments of society to struggle for agency in these ever-expanding social, economic worlds. Examining history allows us perspective of what has been lost, and what has been gained, in order to inform a path to the future.

Wi-Fi, 2017. Electromagnetic fields encircle us. © Brandy Trigueros

You can find more of Brandy’s work here.