[video / performance]
playfully, this video is about a lonely girl preparing for the deep winter ahead by learning ~how to zoom. zoom as an (un)social medium. zoom as corporate ties.
the first few months of the pandemic when zoom got its foot in the door as the go-to video “conferencing” software for the lonely and the (dis)connected everywhere, I felt as if I were being visited by an estranged friend. zoom had already been established in the corporate world for quite some time and I thought I had separated myself from that world when I quit my job and left my field to go back to school.
to be completely dramatic, I don’t think I’ve ever hated myself as much as I did during those years, feeling so divorced from my values, working in an industry that notoriously drives up property value in cities it invades while never giving back to the broader community, displacing residents.
this software that I had so closely associated with conversations filled with corporate lingo and capitalistic efficiency and productivity obsessed speak was invading my home once again, and my friends homes now too. and everyone else’s homes. zoom is a household name now. privacy / security / censorship issues aside, I know it’s a stinkin video chat app that works well, and I use it without a thought now.
I just wonder to what extent we can truly keep our selves and our minds separate from the corporate entities we grant access into our homes and our minds while we use their tools. zoom was made for companies. company relations are different from personal relations. how benign is it, after a year? 5 years? 10? how neutral is it as a tool to connect with others? is it shaping things inside us right now?