The globalized world seems at once transparent and opaque. While modern life is characterized by a desire for more transparency in communication, politics and business, limitless access to information has eroded our personal privacy.

In a two-part, joint exhibition project curated by Simone Neuenschwander and Thomas Thiel, contemporary artists examined the many cultural facets and atmospheres of a (non) transparent society, including the consequences of an algorithm- and data-collection driven life and world and our changed relationship to privacy and strategies of refusal or deliberate disclosure of data, among other issues.

Designed by the activist Dutch design group Metahaven, this large-scale, dense catalog is packed with images, artistic statements and scientific essays from both exhibitions, including outlines of all the contributions to this substantial project. Using mapping and fragmentation to convey the ubiquity of silent surveillance, this book is a complex and provocative contribution to this ever-present social dilemma.

With contributions by Emmanuel Alloa, Neïl Beloufa, Clare Birchall, Juliette Blightman, Ryan Gander, Calla Henkel, Max Pitegoff, David Horvitz, Metahaven, Katja Novitskova, Yuri Pattison and Manfred Schneider.

Designed by Metahaven

Published by Sternberg Press, Bielefelder Kunstverein and Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft

In English and German

Softcover, b&w, 9.5 × 13 inches

ISBN 978-3-95679-223-6