Are We All Addicts Now? is an artist-led enquiry into how the conditions of the digital are not just shaped by us but also shaping us. McLuhan’s maxim is that every new technology creates a new human environment. Emergent pathologies such as internet addiction and digital dementia are symptomatic of this new environment. The project was initiated by artist Katriona Beales, in partnership with curators Fiona MacDonald and Vanessa Bartlett, with principal collaborator Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, one of the UK’s leading experts in online behaviour addiction and a clinical psychiatrist and neuroscientist. The project builds on Katriona Beales’ video installation, ‘White Matter’ (2015), which responded to internet addiction, and was commissioned by FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology).
