Hacking Habitat is a large-scale, international exhibition on the cutting edge of art, technology and social change that is open until June 6th, 2016. More than 80 internationally acclaimed artists and designers will exhibit new and existing work in the former prison at Utrecht Wolvenplein, Netherlands.
Prison is a metaphor for the way in which technology, politics and economic systems hold us in their grip. A prison is the perfect environment for experiencing a heightened sense of digital captivity. What if our smartphones turn out to be the new panopticum? Hacking Habitat as exhibition takes the visitor along in dizzying science fiction real time. It makes control palpable and displays the power of resistance where artists take the lead. Playfully, they reconquer their life world. They hack their habitat, creating space for awareness, debate and renewal.
Hacking Habitat interweaves two story lines: that of a globally encroaching technocracy and that of the opposing power that organizes itself in response. The story is not one of good versus evil, but instead poses the question of how we can find a balance between technology and humanity. To answer this question the organization has collected responses from people under the motto: how can be we keep life in the future livable? Artworks commissioned for the exhibition follow the principle ‘disconnect to reconnect’: how to restore the relationship between human and machine?
