We live in a hyper-mediated world. We are drowning in an ocean of images and information. Data is the new oil. Conflict in My Outlook brings together contemporary artworks and new texts that shed light on human experience in an era of ubiquitous networked technologies. From digital intimacies and the weaponisation of social media to invisible power structures, clickwork and the ‘gig’ economy, contributors argue for a better future in the context of algorithmic racism, machine learning, and the new colonial frontiers of surveillance capitalism.

Conflict in My Outlook takes a unique approach by focusing on contemporary art as a means to explore the techno-politics that define our age. Platforms such as Instagram and TikTok depend on us turning our lives into flows of images, while notoriously harvesting our data. This abundance of information is inextricably entwined with invisible power structures. It is precisely because of the invisibility of such technologies that images as carriers of meaning matter more than ever before.

This anthology, edited by Anna Briers, Nicholas Carah and Holly Arden, is published on the occasion of Conflict in My Outlook, a two-part exhibition series that includes We Met Online (2020–2022, online), and Don’t Be Evil (2021–2022) at UQ Art Museum.

Featuring written contributions from Mark Andrejevic, Holly Arden, Anna Briers, James Bridle, Nicholas Carah, Bronwyn Carlson, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Kate Crawford, Madi Day, Gianluca Demartini, Sean Dockray, Akshaya Kumar, Shaka McGlotten, Thao Phan, Legacy Russell, Jathan Sadowski, Julianne Schultz, and Caroline Wilson-Barnao.

Exhibition artists: Zach Blas and Jemima Wyman, Natalie Bookchin, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, Simon Denny, Xanthe Dobbie, Sean Dockray, Forensic Architecture, Kate Geck, Elisa Giardina Papa, Matthew Griffin, Eugenia Lim, Kenneth Macqueen, Daniel McKewen, Allegra Searle-Lebel, Melissa E. Logan (Chicks on Speed), and Jeremie Zimmermann, Angela Tiatia, Suzanne Treister, and Katie Vida.