We Give Our Consent

Crossman Gallery, UW Whitewater
February 7-26, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 7 5-7pm

We Give Our Consent explores themes of privacy and consent in the digital age, considering ideas about how our information moves through cyberspace—and how blasé we’ve become to this movement—via a multifaceted interactive environment. It was created by Jeff Herriott, Nick Hwang, and A. Bill Miller, with fabrication support from media arts & game design research apprentices. The project was a true collaboration, though Nick Hwang was principally in charge of developing the game interactions in Unity, Bill Miller was principally in charge of video and artistic design, and Jeff Herriott was principally in charge of the audio design and Max programming. The show was created for and presented in the Crossman Gallery at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater from February 7-26, 2019. 

We Give Our Consent includes a series of interconnected installation pieces which gather and display data from gallery-goers. In order to experience the show, the participants have to agree to share some of their data – their image, their voice, their Facebook account, etc – which is captured as participants engage in gallery activities such as playing games, observing specific components of the exhibition, or simply by walking around. This data then makes its way into other components of the exhibition, played back through audio devices or included in various other installation components. The exhibition’s use of this data is relatively harmless but nonetheless shows how participants in contemporary digital culture have no real idea what they’re giving away when they agree to terms and conditions. Furthermore, they don’t really have a choice as to whether not they approve of the notion of giving away their data because it’s almost impossible for anyone in our society to opt out of contemporary digital life.