Spirits, Ghosts and Mortals is the latest series of unique artworks and editions from Hersoid. The inpsiration for the collection was an old archive found on the MIT website, that the artist stumbled upon while researching another project. He found a photograph of a Chinese dignitary, taken in the late 19th century by renowned photographer and explorer John Thompson.
John Thomson FRGS (14 June 1837 – 29 September 1921) was a pioneering Scottish photographer, geographer, and traveller. He was one of the first photographers to travel to the Far East, documenting the people, landscapes and artefacts of eastern cultures. He had traveled through much of Malaya, Siam and India before eventually settling in Hong Kong in 1868. From there he explored extensively in China, one of the first westerners to do so.
Having lived in Shanghai from 2007 to 2010, Hersoid has long held a fascination with Chinese people and culture, in particular the role of the Authoritarian regime who have presided over the meteoric commercialisation and growth of China in recent years. But while there remains a veneer of western economic freedom for the population, there is an increasing tightening of control, which sits at odds with much western principles of freedom and democracy. In particular Hersoid is interested in the pervasive use of surveillance technology such as facial recognition, and its role in monitoring the population to provide data for the Social Credit system that has been rolled out in recent years.
This extensive surveillance network encompasses public spaces, streets, transportation hubs, and even residential areas. This network includes millions of cameras equipped with advanced technologies like facial recognition, AI, and big data analytics.
The Chinese government justifies the use of these technologies as crucial for maintaining public safety and controlling crime rates. Facial recognition systems are utilized in identifying and tracking individuals in crowded places, assisting law enforcement in managing public order, and monitoring criminal activities.
China’s Social Credit System, where facial recognition technology plays a role in monitoring and assessing citizen behavior, is used to assign social credit scores based on various factors like financial responsibility, social behavior, and adherence to government policies. These scores can impact individuals’ access to certain privileges or services. It can mean the difference between getting a loan or being refused, being given a job or being allowed to travel within or beyond China’s borders.
In this series, Hersoid has recontextualised the characters from John Thompson’s remarkable travels, with a view to commenting on the enormous changes that the country has gone through in recent decades, and how the spirits of these historical figures hang over a new population living in totally different conditions.
Most artworks have been minted as unique 1/1 NFTs on the ethereum blockchain via Foundation and one is also available as a limited edition release on Solana via Exchange.art
