The Internet Speaks -- or so they say

The Internet Speaks

by Richard Wright

The Internet Speaks is described as "a database of randomly selected images exploring the nature of the web without text." The project allows viewers to flip through a series of  hundreds (thousands?) of randomly chosen images from the Internet, which appear in original size on a black background without comment or context.  

Without context does the Internet speak at all? The Internet Speaks creates a conundrum. 

Without language, what does this technology say about its users? As humans we are trained to seek context and attempt to create a cohesive narrative for every image or s

eries of images we see. As one peruses the series of disjointed images everything imagineable seems to appear, from family photographs to cartoons to warning labels to advertise

ments to still shots from films, it is natural to attempt to create context. 

Oh sure, I recognize that it's Monte Python, right? I know that film. But who are these runners? What is their story? How does their story change when the next picture is a  still shot of an apparently drunken middle-aged man balancing on a set of chairs and promising "inventive gelatin shots for creative imbibers?" When was that put out? This is worse than looking at a stranger's vacation photos. Oh look, now I am looking at a stranger's vacation photos. That water is beautiful. Where is that? Try as you might, it is impossible to flip through the images without at least attempting to find some deeper meaning. The Internet may be attempting to speak but what is it saying? 

Random images, much like the technology from which they are drawn, become meaningless without contextual and societal clues. Wright's work draws the viewer into an attempt to find deeper meaning, not only within the images themselves, but in the greater disjointed Internet world. Millions of people create new web content everyday: some of it crucially important, some of it fabulously silly. In no time at all we have become nearly totally dependent on the electronic world to help us do our jobs, communicate with friends, learn about the world, and make decisions small and large. Wright reminds us that without the context of a human narrative, the technology we are left with is hollow and without any meaning. The Internet may speak, but can humans truly interpret what it is saying?