YAH YAH Collective - Switching Costs

Please Lend Us Your Attention 

Look over here Now here 

Our mind’s ability to switch between tasks can do more damage than good. But the costs are well hidden behind.. 

The countless hours

clicking…

              watching..

swiping.. 

scrolling..

Rapidly moving from one topic to another, honing our ability to skim and multitask. Yet we can’t seem to focus anymore. Concentration slips from our grasp as we reach further, clutching the interruption machine known as the internet.

There is nothing calming about the internet.

Feeling as though our bodies and minds are adapting to the digital environment built around us. How do these changes affect the ways we interact with the world? Where do we find moments of refuge, time to disconnect, and reroot? Can we find a way to switch these costs from the users to the tech oligarchs that hold our attention as capital? 

YAHYAH is an art collective of Chicago-based artists: Billy Tucker, Brian Castillo, Dan Meinhart, Irma Gualpa, Seiya Abe-Bell, Tania Kelly,
and Veronica Pruneda. Over the course of 6 months, the group challenged themselves to question the way digital media affects their lives. Using 5 CRT TVs and footage shot on mini DV, they scripted short films critiquing different facets of digital existence; engaged in ‘attention exercises’ to refocus their awareness away from screens. Each artist created their own diaristic video encapsulating their personal takeaways from the project.

The culmination of this work allowed them to slow down and engage with the process of creating, adding distance between the artist and the ever-changing chaos of the internet.