Filter Bubbles. Art and digital worlds

Abstract

Our experience is marked by the constant, and often imperceptible, presence of technological actors that, with their operational mechanisms, greatly influence the processes of construction of the worlds – both physical and imaginary – in which we live and, consequently, of ourselves. In the last decade, internet-based media have introduced a further level of mediation, constituted by the activity of profiling and the construction of filter bubbles, whose power reverberates offline. The context of the pandemic contagion we are experiencing has drastically expanded the space for these actors, whose filtering mechanisms are often as pervasive as they are opaque. To overcome this problem, artistic practices and aesthetics can play a fundamental role. In this text we aim to see how, thanks to the works of some Italian artists who have built their careers by reflecting on the aesthetic aspects of the information society.