Malte Sänger

aggregate

aggregate
2024

exhibition installation
photos: pigment print on recycled metal plaques, 10 in x 14 in
text: inscribed by hand into recycled metal plaques, 10 in x 14 in

'aggregate' consists of meaningful cell phone texts that were never sent to their addressees, but were inscribed by hand on recycled metal plates. They resemble diary entries that were never written down and now linger indefinitely in the phones as drafts.

The second part of the work consists of portraits, taken with a self-made infrared camera, of people who unlock their cellphones using it‘s facial recognition feature. (The infrared rays and dots that these cell phones emit for the verification process can be seen in the images.)

At the heart of this work lies the contrast between a capitalist technology that captures humans as data points and the deeply human individual reality of life. Despite seemingly disregarding each other, both realities are intertwined and interdependent.