The Hidden Life of an Amazon User

_The Hidden Life of an Amazon User (2019)

Funded by the European Media Art Platforms EMARE program at IMPAKT with the support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union.

Including texts by Jara Rocha (available here), Jussi Parikka (available here) and Christian Ulrik Andersen & Søren Bro Pold (available here).

The Hidden Life of an Amazon User aims to shed light on Amazon’s often unacknowledged but aggressive exploitation of their users, which is embedded at the core of the so-called internet companies’ business strategies. Such strategies rely on apparently neutral, personalized user experiences afforded by attractive interfaces. These interfaces obfuscate sophisticated business models embedded in endless pages of indecipherable code, all of which are activated by user labor. In turn, these strategies have a significant energy cost, part of which is involuntarily assumed by the user. To put it bluntly, the user is not just exploited by means of their free labor, but is also forced to assume the energy costs of such exploitation.

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Solo show at Aksioma. 16th of January - 15th of March 2022. Ljubljana, Slovenia. Photo: Domen Pal.

Solo at Aksioma. 16th of January - 15th of March 2022. Ljubljana, Slovenia. Photo: Domen Pal.

Collective show at HALLE 14. 26th of September - 15th of December 2020. Leipzig, Germany. Photo: Walther Lekon.

Solo show at Panke Gallery. 7th of January - 19th of September 2020. Berlin, Germany. Photo: Aram Bartholl.

Publication: The Hidden Life of an Amazon User. Includes texts from Jussi Parikka, Jara Rocha, Christian Ulrik Andersent & Søren Bro Pold and Joana Moll. Designed by Oriol Gayán. Photo: courtesy of the artist.