2/11/21
An ironic play on the classic coding exercise, “hello, world!” Jason Livingston and Jason E Geistweidt use electronic circuitry and real-time data to show the difference between the current temperature and the 30-year average in the four cities the polar bears represent: Shenzen, Seattle, São Paulo, and Svalbard. With eyes that glow redder with the rise in global temperatures, the installation turns what is often made invisible - the infrastructure behind our ever-increasing data consumption - into a visual signifier of the impact of this data use on our climate. Goodbye, World! reminds us of our collective impact on the ecosystem, and that even our well-meaning attempts at connection can end up being yet another method of extraction without regeneration. - Zainab Saleh, Curator