Outrageous Algorithms (A fourth emergency service for todays problems)
Outrageous Algorithms (A fourth emergency service for todays problems) 2020
VW TD4 Van with Vinyls
VW TD4 Van with Vinyls
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London … September 2020, MoVA presents Outrageous Algorithms, a mobile artwork by Rachel Ara that challenges the mythology of algorithms. Conceptual artist Rachel Ara uses her ex-AA van as a mobile gallery (MoVA), to take her work out whilst access to galleries and museums remains limited. Borrowing the branding style from a well known breakdown company Ara creates Outrageous Algorithms, a new and specialist service for today’s emergencies - a 24hr Mental Breakdown Service.
In reference to advertising straplines on tradesman's vans, ØA provides ‘all aspects of the trade’ in data manipulation. The van boasts that ØA are No.1 experts in Manipulating Outcomes and Cancel Culture. The ‘exhibition’ is Ara’s comment on the near mythic status of algorithms and their inevitable misuse, while humorously foregrounding the controlling authors hiding behind technology to deflect blame. The misuse of data has never been more obvious to society at large than at this present moment when targeted electioneering, vote rigging, statistical fictions in a pandemic or examination results tampering are being made visible. Ara, a programmer for nearly 3 decades, says “An algorithm is not mysterious - it’s not an autonomous being running riot - it is just a set of instructions, commands - like a simple recipe. The person giving the instructions should bear some responsibility for what they are being programmed to do”. The concept for MoVA was born out of Ara’s frustration with the government's disregard for the rules they were setting for everyone else to follow during the Covid-19 pandemic culminating in the Cummings incident. Exasperated, Ara took a whiteboard marker to her van writing ‘Keep Back: Eye Test in Progress’. Sightings of the van went viral on multiple online platforms and drew people into conversations on the street - realising the van provided an excellent platform for engagement, MoVA (a pun on MoMA) was born and the graffiti became the inaugural exhibition “Testing Times”. While the first iteration was a quick reaction that hit the spot the second is more thoughtful and deals with more complex and polarising issues. “It’s totally liberating showing work like this, outside the mainstream, which is really where the artist should be. It's direct, relevant and of the moment and makes use of the resources at hand. There are no gatekeepers or censorious curators filtering the work and you get to communicate directly with people who might never go to a gallery. It is invigorating to get feedback and criticism from the public - which is ultimately what you want - to provoke discourse and agitate debate.” PRESS RELEASE HERE |
Rear View of MoVA
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Drivers side of MoVA
MoVA Logo (AA Yellow)
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Drivers Side Detail of MoVA
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Passenger side of MoVA