Krackatorium: #Hashtagbattle
part of “Evolutionary Tradition: Contemporary Asian Printmaking”
at Szechuan Fine Art Museum, Chongqing, China
15 March to 30 April 2019
A Krack studio project:
Sukma Smita
Rudi Hermawan
Malcolm Smith
Prihatmoko Moki
Fachriza ‘Kepet’ Ansyari
Eki Abdan
Rjo Rahardjo
Sebastian Advent
Tantri Qurota
Thanks also to Ben Sudbury
This work looks at Indonesian politics in the lead-up to our national elections on April 17. Whereas political discussion used to happen in traditional media (tv, newspapers, radio), in this election the key issues are being debated through social media such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. These platforms implicitly encourage narcissistic, controversial and antagonistic posts by their users because these kinds of posts increase traffic and profits. Accordingly we see an increase in horizontal conflict and identity politics. Echo chambers or filter bubbles cause people with like-minded political views to read and to reinforce each other’s views, leading to the adoption of more extreme views, and an increasingly fragmented civil society. There is no longer the sense that democracy is about seeking a universal solution, in which individual interests are sacrificed for the common good. In the contemporary political ecosystem, conflict is horizontalised as increasingly segmented communities fight to defend their individual interests.
