Although it is a too trivial subject, we must admit that we are almost all affected by a more or less serious form of social addiction. The portability of the devices, the simplicity of the interfaces, the increasingly widespread connection have, in a short time, knocked down a series of physical and behavioural barriers that have completely changed our approach to new technologies, generating in fact different habits from a strictly relational point of view. Although there are many positive aspects to this new digital society, it’s equally important to focus on highlighting the risks hidden behind these new habits. Several studies have long ago identified a series of widely spread diseases, among them perhaps the best known is FOMO, acronym for “fear of missing out” a form of anxiety about losing some opportunity for social interaction or being excluded from pleasant, exciting or simply popular events experienced by friends through social networks. The artist Ant Hamlyn has created an installation as simple and ironic, pungent and immediate that immediately shapes those feelings of anxiety or fulfilment that arise in cases of success or failure of a post on social networks: a big globe floating that, connected, remains alive thanks to the consensus expressed on social networks. For each like, tag or mention The Boost Project comes to life, and by emitting sounds and lights it expands, then returns to deflate and wither in case of loss of popularity. It makes you smile, right? Well … that gasbag is inside each of us. Benedetta Sabatini

 

Ant Hamlyn – The Boost Project