No Exit: Digital Life and Its Endless Immersion

If participants close their eyes, they will hear the familiar buzz or chime from their phone that signals a charging connection. If they open their eyes, the charging connection will fail. A series of surveillance cameras fixed around a central post run a data-driven open/closed eye-detection system that determines whether to permit charging. As they engage in the pretense of digital disconnection, people lie back and bask under the glow of the neon sign circling overhead, imploring them to never stop listening, never stop giving, never stop connecting. Their slight smiles and semi-erect postures show that they never do. Regardless of whether they plug in their phones, participants are hooked into networks that keep them always at the ready: under the lights of the industrial building, under the gaze of the surveillance cameras, and at the disposal of their smartphones.