Tobias Nap
In the digital advertising world, one second of
attention is worth approximately $0.004. The
photograph presented in this exhibition reproduces
the logic of the attention economy by converting
the viewer’s gaze into measurable economic value.
Within these systems, it becomes increasingly
unclear where the consumer ends and the product
begins.
By using personal data collected about me by Meta
over five years, I traced a network of
advertisers assigned to me through my online
activity and patterns of consumption. From this data,
I dissected the brands whose products I already
own, using them as markers of a digital identity that
raises questions about consumer autonomy within
surveillance capitalism.
Behind the Screen is an attempt to visualise the
largely invisible systems operating behind our
screens, questioning what agency remains within
systems in which prediction, influence, and profit
have become inseparable.