CTRL + Confess: A Digital Liturgy is an immersive installation combining stained-glass-inspired imagery, found footage video, and performance.
Six “plagues” are depicted in luminous, church-window aesthetics, each symbolising a destructive force in the digital age:
Six “plagues” are depicted in luminous, church-window aesthetics, each symbolising a destructive force in the digital age:
1. Tech Idolatry (worship of Big Tech and corporate gods)
2. Algorithmic Control (surveillance and predictive manipulation)
3. Fake News (erosion of truth and democracy)
4. Body Dysphoria (distorted self-image shaped by online culture)
5. Toxic Femininity (performative gender roles under patriarchal structures)
6. Misogyny & Incel Culture (radicalised male communities online)
2. Algorithmic Control (surveillance and predictive manipulation)
3. Fake News (erosion of truth and democracy)
4. Body Dysphoria (distorted self-image shaped by online culture)
5. Toxic Femininity (performative gender roles under patriarchal structures)
6. Misogyny & Incel Culture (radicalised male communities online)
The stained-glass visuals reference religious iconography, reframing technology as the new altar.
A video installation interweaves playful, aspirational social media aesthetics with their darker realities, exposing the seductive and destructive sides of digital life.
The performance element echoes ritual and confession, bringing the audience into a space where faith, tech, and body politics intersect.
A video installation interweaves playful, aspirational social media aesthetics with their darker realities, exposing the seductive and destructive sides of digital life.
The performance element echoes ritual and confession, bringing the audience into a space where faith, tech, and body politics intersect.
video excerpt, Single-channel video installation, color, sound, 25:27 min, loop
In the performance for CTRL + Confess: A Digital Liturgy, the artist is bound in network cables, kneeling on the floor in a posture between devotion and captivity.
For thirty minutes, she scrolls on her phone, bowing deeply each time she receives a like or message. In front of her is the luminous stained-glass installation with a small altar of Christian objects; behind her, the video work plays. Visitors must pass her closely to navigate the space, becoming implicated witnesses.
After thirty minutes, her hand restraints are removed. She locks her phone, places it aside, and begins to untangle herself. Kneeling before the altar, a sound piece is activated—a recorded digital prayer, overlaying with the ongoing sound of the video installation. With a whip made from network cables, she begins to flog herself, the blows intensifying, echoing acts of penitence and punishment.
The atmosphere oscillates between the sacred and the profane: a ritual charged with the aesthetics of church liturgy, yet fractured by digital gestures and the economy of attention. What begins as devotion slips into compulsion, and the audience witnesses the collapse of worship into self-destruction.
The performance becomes a ritual of submission and resistance, exposing the ways digital systems demand our devotion while eroding our agency.
For thirty minutes, she scrolls on her phone, bowing deeply each time she receives a like or message. In front of her is the luminous stained-glass installation with a small altar of Christian objects; behind her, the video work plays. Visitors must pass her closely to navigate the space, becoming implicated witnesses.
After thirty minutes, her hand restraints are removed. She locks her phone, places it aside, and begins to untangle herself. Kneeling before the altar, a sound piece is activated—a recorded digital prayer, overlaying with the ongoing sound of the video installation. With a whip made from network cables, she begins to flog herself, the blows intensifying, echoing acts of penitence and punishment.
The atmosphere oscillates between the sacred and the profane: a ritual charged with the aesthetics of church liturgy, yet fractured by digital gestures and the economy of attention. What begins as devotion slips into compulsion, and the audience witnesses the collapse of worship into self-destruction.
The performance becomes a ritual of submission and resistance, exposing the ways digital systems demand our devotion while eroding our agency.
Performance, duration: ~35 min,
Our Data, Who art in the Cloud
Hollowed be thy feed
Thy algorithm come,
Thy influence be done,
On screen as it is in code.
Give us this day our daily scroll,
And forgive us our screen time,
As we forgive those who doomscroll against us.
Hollowed be thy feed
Thy algorithm come,
Thy influence be done,
On screen as it is in code.
Give us this day our daily scroll,
And forgive us our screen time,
As we forgive those who doomscroll against us.
Lead us not into content traps,
But deliver us from Tech broes.
For Thine is the plattform,
The server and the surveillance,
Forever monetized.
Amen.
CTRL + Confess: A Digital Liturgy, 2025
Video installation (25:27 min), stained-glass window installation, sound, performance (~35 min), altar objects, network cables
Video installation (25:27 min), stained-glass window installation, sound, performance (~35 min), altar objects, network cables
