It wasn’t so long ago parents were warning their children that too much TV would turn their eyes square. How things have changed. The debate now is whether toddlers are too young for tablets, whether their motor skills and reading are helped or hindered by electronics, and how to protect young people from internet grot. Sci-fi writer William Gibson coined the term “cyber-punk” 30 years ago for a super tech-savvy sub-species of human, plugged into the grid from day one and whose lives and irreversibly entwined with technology. Well that sub-species exists, and it is all grown up.
Siggi Eggertsson turns 30 this year, and is an example of the new generation of artists which not only uses technology but explores its implications. An Icelander living in Berlin, Eggertsson presents a pixelated view of the world. His huge patterns of geometric shapes hide their secrets in plain sight – pick the right zoom level and images reveal themselves, get closer and the recognisable features are lost in a sea of seemingly uniform shape and random colour. Skvís, at Reykjavik’s Spark Design Space, is a floor-to-ceiling head-bender running until 16 November.
Photography, Vigfus Birgisson
