Danial Nord continues his indictment of contemporary culture by manipulating the tools of mass communication. In his digital video Youtopia, the artist captures hyperlinked reality to poke fun at the curatorial process in the age of misinformation. After receiving an email with a link to the New York Times article titled: "Guggenheim and YouTube Seek Budding Video Artists," Nord created virtual assistants to investigate. Their automated inquiries, skewed by database hierarchies and software glitches, produce convoluted associations and misguided conclusions. The search results, texts, and screen-grabs are ‘real', but the electronic helpers have ulterior motives, blurring boundaries between artificial intelligence and the human psyche. Youtopia highlights the general state of affairs in our quick-to-click culture.
