State of Affairs, 2019
Perfect bound book
20 x 13.2 x 1.5 cm
Edition of 100
State of Affairs is a book by Bob Bicknell-Knight, containing a number of texts that have been written over the past few years, from exhibition press releases to academic essays, concerning new technologies, future fictions and simulated spaces.
The texts are placed alongside a series of stills from State of Affairs (2018 – 19), a video piece that compiles footage from the YouTube channel News Direct, in which daily news stories, from self-driving buses to social media bots, are transcribed into 3D rendered animations. Non-linear in presentation, the re-appropriated video work illustrates current and future modes of technological interface, from facial recognition software to drone surveillance. Executed in a Y2K aesthetic, the work is dystopic and utopic all at once. Akin to the unconscious rituals implemented while existing on the internet, opening tab after tab, clickbait after clickbait, the piece mirrors the inconclusive narrative of our digital lives. The visual content is accompanied by a soothing, melodic soundtrack and augmented voiceover, forewarning of the future of gamified spaces and digital death. The artwork was commissioned by Daata Editions, and will be available to purchase and view online in 2019. The work’s debut will be a part of Beyond The Door, a new online exhibition featuring newly commissioned artworks curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight on Daata Editions.
The font used in the book is Roboto, developed by Google as the system font for its mobile operating system Android, developed to be modern, approachable and emotional. The texts are presented in columns, mimicking how articles are formulated in newspapers and magazines, compressing the news into bitesize digestible chunks of data.
BOB BICKNELL-KNIGHT 