The Information Age
"The Information Age" (1997), a CD-ROM and web project by Jutta Kirchgeorg.
Jutta Kirchgeorg: The Information Age
Under the guise of a presentation on the history of electronic communications, The Information Age examines problematic issues in present computer mediated communication, such as the mystification of computers and the resulting frustration as well as the underlying structures of control and power. It is an artistic approach to revealing our avid commitment to rapidly developing technology and our acceptance of resulting alterations in communication mechanisms, information access and conclusively the rearrangement of social structure.
In The Information Age, current technology is both subject matter and medium. Wrapped as an educational CD-ROM product it stages a situation where the viewer experiences the computers deficiency as intelligent interface for human interaction and his gradually vanishing power of control over the machine. It is a hybrid project comprising two entities: an interactive Director movie which functions as the primary user interface and a Website which is being accessed from within the movie. The Director movie is an interactive presentation about major inventions and achievements in the field of electronic communications. Apart from this "educational" presentation the project also involves another level of functionality which becomes apparent only after a certain extent of user interaction. The piece plays with our fascination about technology which is sometimes so exaggerated that we are blind for its drawbacks and harms.
