How is technology changing the way we see? The artist James Bridle reimagines John Berger’s Ways of Seeing for the digital age and reveals the internet’s hidden infrastructure.

“The way we see things is affected by what we know, or what we believe” – John Berger. In 1972, Berger’s seminal TV series and book changed perceptions of art and set out to reveal the language of images.

Of course, that was before the internet, smartphones, and social media took hold.

How do we see the world around us now? And, who are the artists urging us to look more closely?

James Bridle writes about the development of technology on our lives. His work has been exhibited at the V&A, the Barbican, in galleries worldwide, and online. In this series of four programmes, he updates Berger’s Ways of Seeing, inviting contemporary artists to explore how the technology we use every day has transformed the ways in which we see and are seen.

In this first episode, Invisible Networks, James looks for the hidden, physical infrastructure of the internet. Does it matter that it’s being swept out of sight? Artists Hito Steyerl, Ingrid Burrington, Trevor Paglen, Olia Lialina, Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev explain why they’re compelled to show us what’s going on beneath the surface.

Producer: Steve Urquhart
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