Daniel G. Andújar

〈World’s Best Democracy〉, Algorithm, coloring 2018–2019

Daniel G. Andújar works across the fields of art, politics, research and the appropriation of digital technologies. In the World’s Best Democracy he exposes the framework and the guts of the archive that act as a ‘fascist machine’. But a fascist machine can be redirected and used against its original leader – hence the situationist strategy of détournement. A dissident and radical machine can be redirected against its original mechanics, perhaps by hacking its software. At a time when algorithms dictate our present and monitor our existence, it is worth paying attention to the algorithms that have been influencing our political system for decades.
In a world saturated with images, media impacts and all kinds of advertising intrusions, it remains surprising to see how the marketing techniques of political propaganda still manage to find a place amid so much competition, still manage to get their messages across and evoke their siren song. Reflecting on how political propaganda has acted upon us through the concentration of media dependent on economic and political interests, one can recall the history and tactics of National Socialism to understand that this is not something new. The strategy is still clear and, in the context of highly invasive digital media and social networks, little has changed.
In fact, the strategy has evolved to become more personalised. Through sophisticated algorithms our governments and institutions, political and economic powers, continue to feed their propaganda, directing it to global channels of imposition for hegemony and homogeneity. Language becomes a tool of conspiracy and manipulation, an exercise of domination and domestication, rather than a language of democracy, an artificial universe that seems completely real.