Noise in the Sense of Large Number of Small Events

As internet users, we produce unimaginable amounts of data every day. While using the internet, the information we generate creates our digital twin—a profile whose appearance and purpose remain unknown. We believe that the content shown to us online is directed specifically at us, but it is actually created for our digital persona, which can be monetized in countless ways. Digital giants monitor all user interactions with their systems. Social media gives us an illusory sense of control over the data we share with our followers and, consequently, with online corporations. Perfectly cropped frames, like in Katarzyna Wyszkowska's painting "The Frame" displayed at the Import Export gallery exhibition, are intended to show only what we want to be visible. However, the flow of data extends far beyond what we consciously upload to platforms.

If artificial intelligence were to generate our online image, it would resemble something closer to Wyszkowska’s painting "Noise in the Sense of Large Numbers of Small Events" than the aesthetic Instagram feed we imagine. The artist has created a collage of quotes, medical diagnoses issued via teleconsultations, overheard conspiracy theories, information from places we will never visit, and bookmarked pages we’ll never return to.

By using the internet and mobile apps, we consciously agree to the processing of our data, hoping that the algorithms they use will improve our daily lives—from finding offers that match our needs to selecting a suitable partner. For app developers, fulfilling our needs is synonymous with losing a customer. That’s why the most popular dating apps function more like gambling games designed to provide constant access to adrenaline, continually stimulating our reward system. The gamification of love is not a phenomenon introduced by dating platforms. Lee Mackinnon highlights the playful nature of medieval "love games," in which men competed for women's favor. Hence, in her painting "Data Dating," Katarzyna Wyszkowska combines motifs of gambling and the medieval chivalric ethos, illustrating the genealogy of mechanisms behind modern dating apps.

Wyszkowska also delves into the eerie narratives associated with the life of data on the internet, exploring the concept of the "zombie internet." Social media platforms and forums are flooded with content created by bots and algorithms rather than real users. Automated comments, AI-generated graphics, and deep fakes seamlessly intertwine with human-written posts, blurring the line between genuine content and artificial noise designed to mimic activity, spread misinformation, or "enhance" statistics.

The atmosphere of the internet, which—like a world of zombies—is half-alive and half-dead, is depicted in Wyszkowska’s multi-layered sculptures, where data takes on a life of its own, fueling the digital overproduction of content that no one controls. In seeking salvation from the horror of faceless, multinational corporations controlling our sensitive data, we turn to government directives and legislation focused on data protection. However, we should not be deluded into thinking that the state and politicians know how to ensure our digital safety.

In April 2020, employees of Poczta Polska (Polish Post) transported a DVD containing the personal data of nearly 30 million Polish citizens participating in the so-called "envelope election" from the Ministry of Digital Affairs under armed guard. The DVD was secured with a password that Polish Post officials received via SMS. All possible data protection procedures were breached, jeopardizing the security of citizens. The artist decided to commemorate this event with the painting "Monument to a Hand Holding a DVD Containing the Personal Data of All Polish Citizens." The monument is depicted against the backdrop of a city overrun by pigeons joyfully distributing paper data, providing it with security as "professional" as that of Polish Post and the Ministry of Digital Affairs in organizing the envelope election.

We care about the security of our data because we believe in it. We believe there is a way to organize and analyze it objectively. The faith in the infallibility of data in market contexts is presented—antithetically—through the figure of the Noise Trader, who behaves irrationally in the face of supposedly rational market logic. The Noise Trader introduces chaos into the "crystal-clear" and "logical" data-driven decisions of stock market players. This serves as a convenient explanation for those who wish to justify their decisions with logic and enlightenment while concealing the fact that markets are not rational. The sequences of transactions, most of which are executed automatically by high-frequency trading algorithms, escape our control and operate more like black boxes than manifestations of logic.

In Wyszkowska’s paintings presented at the "Noise in the Sense of Large Numbers of Small Events" exhibition, stock trading—even when based on data analysis—resembles a séance, the course of which is impossible to predict.

Gabi Skrzypek