Considered from a Marxist perspective, tablet computers may be the ultimate fetish commodities. I wanted to turn the tablet into a Freudian fetish object.
A tablet computer is installed in a dark enclosure.
Screen disinfectant and a box of tissues are attached to the outside of the enclosure,
reminiscent of a classic pornographic cinema setting.
Visitors are invited to enter the space, disinfect the screen and lick it.
Through continuous licking, the screen will gradually light up.
The tongue and face of the user are increasingly illuminated.
The piece ends when maximum screen luminosity has been reached, or once the user gives
up.
FETISHDani Ploeger (NL)
Tablet app, digital video (50”), tissues, computer screen disinfectant, 2014-2016
Dani Ploeger (NL)
Dani Ploeger is an artist and cultural critic who explores situations of conflict and crisis on the fringes of the world of high-tech consumerism. His objects, videos, and apps emphasize both the fragility and rawness of the materiality of everyday technologies, and question the sanitized, utopian marketing around innovation and its implications for local and global power dynamics. He has made a VR installation while embedded with frontline troops in East-Ukraine, travelled to dump sites in Nigeria to collect electronic waste originating from Europe, and interviewed witnesses of US drone attacks in Pakistan for work on sound and technologies of violence. Dani holds a PhD in media, performance and cultural studies from the University of Sussex, UK. He is currently a Research Fellow at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, and artistic researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
