Krack in China
Krackatorium: #Hashtagbattle
part of “Evolutionary Tradition: Contemporary Asian Printmaking”
at Szechuan Fine Art Museum, Chongqing, China
15 March to 30 April 2019
A Krack studio project
Sukma Smita, Rudi Hermawan, Malcolm Smith, Prihatmoko Moki, Fachriza ‘Kepet’ Ansyari, Eki Abdan, Rjo Rahardjo, Sebastian Advent, Tantri Qurota. Thanks also to Ben Sudbury.
This work looks at the hashtags associated with Indonesian politics in the lead-up to the 2019 elections. Whereas political discussion used to happen in traditional media (tv, newspapers, radio), in this election the key issues are being debated through social media such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. These platforms implicitly encourage narcissistic, controversial and antagonistic posts by their users because these kinds of posts increase traffic and profits. There is no longer the sense that democracy is about seeking a universal solution, in which individual interests are sacrificed for the common good. In the contemporary political ecosystem, conflict is horizontalised as increasingly segmented communities fight to defend their individual interests.
