Exhibition Review: Caroline Sinders "Within the Terms and Conditions"
© Caroline Sinders
Written by: Grace Russell
A popular theme throughout media is the relationship between technology and art. While art is often bolstered and disseminated through technology, discussions arise of how technology both positively and negatively affects content. Caroline Sinders’ exhibition Within the Terms and Conditions explores the way content has been spread online. Sinders uses a multimedia presentation commissioned by the Photographers’ Gallery to discuss unregulated content online and the authorities that decide what is allegedly harmful. The exhibition poses the questions: “What is allowed to be online?” and “Who decides what is allowed to be online?”
YouTube is one of the best known major platforms that represent the issue Sinders’ successfully represents in her presentations. The online regulations laid out by the company often confuse viewers and creators as certain content is deemed negative and other content is deemed acceptable. For her project, Sinders viewed hundreds of hours of toxic content to include in her multimedia exhibition. This intense labor is not unusual for Sinders, as her experience over the last eight years has been to research harassment and brutality online concerning human rights.
© Caroline Sinders
Sinders’ exhibition seamlessly represents the chaos brewing in these online platforms. The project features almost a hundred videos categorized into different areas of harm, ranging from anti-immigration sentiments to white supremacy. Each of the categories utilized were ones Sinders felt reflected the conversations taking place throughout 2020 and 2021, either as a response to the media or global phenomena. The presentation itself features fanatical news broadcasts overlapping each other in a fearful cacophony. The videos display various examples of harmful content posted online accompanied by a statement about the true intent of the content posted. Through Sinders’ research, she analyzed what each major online platform considered harmful content. Of the ninety-one videos found, only eight were removed due to the arbitrary community guidelines.
© Caroline Sinders
Within the Terms and Conditions will be displayed on the Media Wall at The Photographers’ Gallery in London until July 31. It can also be viewed online here.
