[I’ve been in love with Negativland since their legendary copyright battle with U2 and they’ve been a part of Boing Boing since 2001; it’s a pleasure beyond words to be able to debut More Data, their characteristically trenchant video about data privacy and surveillance; see below for notes from Negativland. -Cory]
When did online life become a non-stop Turing test? And when did humans become the ones who are failing it? It began nearly two decades ago, when advertising models staked out their territory over the data we use to structure our online lives. Without a legal recognition of the right to digital self-ownership, this resulting ‘person’ must not exist. As Negativland nears the finish line on an ambitious pair of interconnected albums of all new content (a project begun over ten years ago, and including material that dates back to the earliest workings of the group), there is a track from the second album that is asking to be heard sooner rather than later. In collaboration with director Ryan Worsley, here is the video for our new song entitled ‘More Data’.