We’re under more surveillance than ever. Public authorities keep tabs on our health, our family situation, our finances and our criminal records. Surveillance cameras follow our every move and information is gathered on our patterns of consumption, our tastes and our social media preferences. In a world where motion, transactions and relations are constantly monitored and analyzed, access to data is power.
A number of cases have highlighted the potential for abuse of all this information stored in digital society’s many records. In March 2014 (the year SUPERFLEX created their work in Holbæk) Nets —the company behind pervasive Danish digital solutions NemID and DK debitcards— was sold to U.S. investment funds and the national pension fund ATP. This spurred a debate on data security, based on the fact that Nets might under American law be forced to hand over sensitive personal data.
SUPERFLEX’ statement is to be read in this context. Typically for the group’s projects, the flickering blue and orange message All Data to the People pinpoints a highly relevant issue. The political comment references the slogan All Power to the People, which was used in anti-Vietnam War marches. The SUPERFLEX trio also refers to the Danish marches against nuclear power from Holbæk to Copenhagen in the 1960s.
Superflex alias Jakob Fenger (b. 1968), Bjørnstjerne Christiansen (b. 1969) and Rasmus Nielsen (b. 1969) all live and work in Copenhagen.
