Objects of Scorn
Chicago First Church
25.7.–31.8.2025
[with Kai Trausenegger, Joseph J Greer, Jesse Bond, Frans Nybacka, Alex Both, Chris Viau, Max Svitlo, Salt Salome (Anna Zatsarinna), NI KA and Lawrence M]
How does a child imagine catastrophe—or as Adam Greenfield coins "The Long Emergency"? Whispers and cries of war assert themselves regularly in the games of youth, appearing in their drawings, their inventions: forts built for battle, sticks and swords, rocks and plastic guns. For many young ones, there is little fiction to the conflicts that enter into their play, arms taken up, as so many before, rocks from slingshots hit tanks, child, come of age now. Fandom now dominates the minds of the "adult youth" as an escape from the contemporary moment. The super heroes must save the day, as there aren't many others who seem to have the time. Rather than a picture of 'the girl back home' the modern European warfighter brings with him not an image of his wife, but of his waifu.
The materiality of war has shifted. No longer confined to trenches or frontlines, today's wars are waged through screens, drones, data. Servers are as vulnerable as soldiers. The battlefield now includes satellite feeds, information leaks (on warethunder forums), disinformation campaigns. A child with a tablet may see more real-time footage of conflict than a soldier in the field. The tools of play and the tools of ruin share the same material signature.
Media saturates the senses—war is livestreamed, gamified, retweeted. The spectacle of suffering becomes just another scroll. Against this overwhelming present, fandom emerges as an escape for the adult youth, caught between the harshness of reality and the worlds of fantasy.
Cybersecurity is no longer a specialist concern but a daily condition of life. The borders between the personal and political, between home and battlefield, are transgressed with every data breach, every algorithmic echo. Children grow up not just under the threat of bombs, but under the quiet violence of surveillance, censorship, and digital manipulation.
Imagination knows no bounds. And for young people living in, around, and bearing witness to war-both physical and virtual—it is no different. They inherit a world where catastrophe is ambient, emergencies are chronic, and play is not innocent, but rehearsed.
How does a child imagine catastrophe—or as Adam Greenfield coins "The Long Emergency"? Whispers and cries of war assert themselves regularly in the games of youth, appearing in their drawings, their inventions: forts built for battle, sticks and swords, rocks and plastic guns. For many young ones, there is little fiction to the conflicts that enter into their play, arms taken up, as so many before, rocks from slingshots hit tanks, child, come of age now. Fandom now dominates the minds of the "adult youth" as an escape from the contemporary moment. The super heroes must save the day, as there aren't many others who seem to have the time. Rather than a picture of 'the girl back home' the modern European warfighter brings with him not an image of his wife, but of his waifu.
The materiality of war has shifted. No longer confined to trenches or frontlines, today's wars are waged through screens, drones, data. Servers are as vulnerable as soldiers. The battlefield now includes satellite feeds, information leaks (on warethunder forums), disinformation campaigns. A child with a tablet may see more real-time footage of conflict than a soldier in the field. The tools of play and the tools of ruin share the same material signature.
Media saturates the senses—war is livestreamed, gamified, retweeted. The spectacle of suffering becomes just another scroll. Against this overwhelming present, fandom emerges as an escape for the adult youth, caught between the harshness of reality and the worlds of fantasy.
Cybersecurity is no longer a specialist concern but a daily condition of life. The borders between the personal and political, between home and battlefield, are transgressed with every data breach, every algorithmic echo. Children grow up not just under the threat of bombs, but under the quiet violence of surveillance, censorship, and digital manipulation.
Imagination knows no bounds. And for young people living in, around, and bearing witness to war-both physical and virtual—it is no different. They inherit a world where catastrophe is ambient, emergencies are chronic, and play is not innocent, but rehearsed.