Photo: Ai Weiwei, courtesy of Studio

In our brave new world, we live in a state of constant surveillance, where our every moment can be shadowed. Our phones can track our footsteps while cameras can use facial recognition software to identify who, where, and when. People presume because “they have done nothing wrong,” such invasions are in their best interest. As author Aldous Huxley predicted, “People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacity it think.”

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It falls to the provenance of artists to question the status quo, to remind us not to take things at face value. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has dedicated his life to this: to calling out injustice, hypocrisy, and violations of the state, corporations, and anyone who would be so inclined to use technology to dig into someone else’s affairs.

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Yet it seems no matter how much we speak of the “other,” people are by and large unmoved. Many simply refuse to perceive the impact of abject violations until it happens to them. Understanding the self-centeredness that is innate to so many people these days, Ai taps into the inherent need many people have to use personal experience as the primary path to learn.

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