“Cookies”: exploring the concepts of consent, acceptance, care, and surveillance in the digital environment

Focusing on the data we produce at any given moment through paintings, video projections, films, and installations

The art exhibition COOKIES, co-organised by the cultural organisations TILT Platform and M.A.M.A. Contemporary, explores the concepts of consent, acceptance, care, and surveillance as they are shaped in the ever-changing digital environment. Greek and international artists and artists’ groups present different stories about the Internet, which is approached as both an experience and a medium while exploring the nature and use of the information we create within it.

The exhibition focuses on the data we produce at any given moment through paintings, video projections, films, and installations. It explores how digital technology reshapes our understanding of the world and raises questions about the power dynamics between people and technology. 

The exhibition is curated by Foteini Vergidou.

Between the literal meaning of the word “cookies” and the technological term describing the small text files that websites create as we visit them, the artists aim to highlight the digital processes of monitoring, exploiting and educating contemporary users, resulting in the manipulation of their social and commercial behaviour.

The marketisation of everyday life is achieved by constructing a continuously up-to-date profile that we generate in real-time, thanks to the data we generate while browsing the Internet. Our digital identity is sold and bought without our knowledge and returned to us as personalised content for consumption.

However, cookies are proposed to make our Internet experience easier, faster, and smoother. After all, who wants to enter the same information over and over again instead of enjoying a website’s content almost automatically? All it takes is for us to accept a lengthy—and often incomprehensible—contract. Its deliberately off-putting presentation makes our acceptance reflexive.

The choices we are offered determine the importance of our acceptance. The abuse of our consent starts with the simple, straightforward question, “Accept all cookies.” Thus, a new form of “pedagogy” is formed, where we are trained to consider the results of algorithms as the only reliable ones, to adapt to shorter and shorter waiting times, and to accept terms and conditions mechanically. At the same time, the irreversibility of our decisions (yes/no) remains deliberately blurred.

Psychological approaches and algorithmic practices influence the behaviours we adopt on the Internet. Our manipulation through artificial intelligence tools begins by constructing a customised set of interests, expectations, fears and biases to create a sense of familiarity with them. The synthetic emotional bonds created influence our opinions and ideas, further complicating our relationship with our digital identity.

What can we expect from a future driven by the demands of automation and artificial intelligence while choice and free will are limited to manufactured dilemmas? The exhibition COOKIES invites us to reevaluate the importance of our digital privacy, shedding light on the risks of digital surveillance and limitless consent. 

Cookies break into pieces, crumble, and remind us of the traces—fragments—we leave behind with every move we make online. Our digital profile is ready, and we will consume it indifferently.

The works by Browser Based and Nicos Synnos are new commissions.

Art Direction: Eleni Simantiraki 

The exhibition is realised with the support of the Deputy Ministry of Culture of Cyprus.