What happens in the milliseconds when data is traveling through the Internet?

"HyperAura" is a sequence of images portraying the journey of a digital file through the Internet. On multiple open windows within a browser, a digital representation of my physical self is being repeatedly processed and shown on screen. The sequence involves recursion, data bending and letting the windows interact with each other to achieve a visual narrative about how an image is rendered to a screen.

Humans generate millions of gigabytes of information on a daily basis, information that is seen as non-material but is actually lifted from a physical and decaying context. Consciously or unconsciously, the physical object is preserved online through the act of uploading and sharing it over the Internet. As it is shared and reshared, a single image is multiplied into several files through algorithms, resulting in its 'mechanical reproduction'.

Walter Benjamin argues that the aura, or the allure, of a work of art, diminishes each time it is reproduced. In Benjamin's eyes, this is a negative effect, however, in contemporary society, circulation has become more powerful than ownership and originality through the rise of an open Internet and social media sharing. I demonstrate this by showcasing the effects of image handling techniques used by various algorithms for the preservation of my digital self.

www.hyperaura.online