Uncovering the Flesh in Our Satellites

Our data is inextricable from our bodies. Biometric systems mine our most individualised body parts such as fingerprints, vein patterns, gait. These digital recordings of our anatomy take our individual attributes and extend them for the manipulation of third-party companies and agencies. Our data is purchased, accessed, used against us for capitalist gain or to reinforce authoritarian regimes. Data companies dredge our marketable traits from our fingertips, relinquishing more information than we can grasp with the swipe of a thumb. Flying across fibre optic cables, our digital waste splutters messily into millions of servers in tens of thousands of data centres across the world. Our information is given a diseased anthropomorphic body. A body that has been molded from our corporeal detritus, akin to sweat, skin cells, saliva, and shit. This cesspool of waste is analysed for its capital, sewn back together in a diseased humanlike shell, and projected back at us.

Uncovering the Flesh in Our Satellites translates coded processes into a visceral, abject reality. Through haptic solidity of steel and aluminium, Yvette James expresses the anthropomorphic qualities of our personal data.