The G(u)arden of Digital Delights

Through this work, the artist builds on Hieronymus Bosch’s famed work ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ to question the idea of delight in today’s times, and the metaphor of garden as a place for relaxation and enjoyment, simultaneously a place for establishing and maintaining a sense of identity. The artist draws this parallel to digital gardens of today- data centers and digital filter bubbles, created with the g(u)ardening tools of AI like drones, surveillance, data, algorithms. The role of the gardener draws parallel to the role of the the human labor in AI. Often wrongly perceived as a self-functioning independent entity, AI builds on the labor of millions of invisible people sitting hours in front of screens tagging data, looking at extremely disturbing content for moderation, all to maintain a sense of digital delight and properness. The digital delight is crafted and curated to keep people in the confines of bubbles, enforcing an identity trapped in this guarded garden.

The artwork is a 3 minute 41 second quadriptych (4 part) video work with custom made audio, artwork made in 2023. The artwork will be displayed in 4 square digital displays or 2 horizontal digital displays, preferably at a right angle wall, with 2 parts of the video playing on each wall. Each part of the video talks about different notions of the digital garden today, with one part speaking about the labor involved in creating and maintaining such a digital garden.