Dasha Ilina
Dasha Ilina is a Russian techno-critical artist based in Paris, France. Through the employment of low-tech and DIY approaches, her work questions the desire to incorporate modern technology into our daily lives by highlighting the implications of actually doing so. Her practice engages the public in order to facilitate a space for the development of critical thought regarding social imperatives for care of oneself and others, privacy in the digital age, and the reflexive contemporary urge to turn to technology for answers. She is the founder of the Center for Technological Pain, a project that proposes DIY solutions to health problems caused by digital technologies for which she has received an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica. She is also the co-director of NØ SCHOOL, a summer school that focuses on critical research around the social and environmental impacts of information and communication technologies.
Dasha's Kitchen: My Magical Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe
This video is a response to the recently adopted machine learning-based surveillance technology in France. In light of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games happening across France, the French government has put in place an algorithmic video surveillance which automatically detects “abnormal activity” - a category which is defined by the various private startups and tech firms providing this technology to the state. This new and automatised form of surveillance puts in danger already marginalised groups, while limiting their access to the public space. Inspired by the online trend of reviewing everything and everyone, this video gives an insight into the questionable processes behind algorithmic surveillance, as well as highlighting the problematics behind implementing AI systems on a large-scale through a humorous lens of review-based Youtube videos.
