At the core of surveillance capitalism, human attention has been reduced to an extractive commodity, continually fragmented by the acceleration of algorithmic flows and screen interfaces. Confronting the cognitive numbness of the infinite scroll, the COPE project introduces a physical sedimentation of human presence.
Born from the collaboration between digital artist Charles-Olivier Tremblay and technologist Paul E. Jacobs, COPE appropriates biometric tracking mechanisms to turn them back against their own logics of surveillance. Utilizing high-precision eye-tracking systems, we extract the gaze trajectory from its commercial utility, transmuting raw behavioral data into a malleable, expressive medium.
Layered across edge-lit acrylic lightboxes, each piece acts as an "aesthetic shield". The works capture the fossil of a human consciousness confronted with contemporary reality—crystallizing the tension between what is seen, what is omitted, and the elusive halos of light that resist capture. COPE invites the viewer to step out of reactive consumption and re-engage with the sustained, embodied time of contemplation.