CHRIS COMBS

Chris Combs is an artist based in Washington, D.C who creates provocative technology. His solo exhibition, Judging Me Judging You, at the DC Arts Center's Nano Gallery explored themes of surveillance and control, and his work Markov Radio was included in a one-day Sound Scene event at the Hirshhorn Museum. He was a photo editor for National Geographic for five years and has photographed autism, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and traffic cones. He is a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design. You can find his work at chriscombs.net.

Morale is Mandatory, 2020, custom machine

“It only takes a weak signal to get segmented. Have you ever shopped for, say, a toilet part at an online bookseller and had it follow you around the internet? A dizzying array of “retargeting” companies and networks have a strong incentive to label you with a category, or segment, and a weaker incentive to un-label you. And who says how long these labels last?

Toilet parts are just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine a world where reading about pot brownies affects your applicant score in a company’s H.R. system, or keeps you from getting a mortgage--or parole.”

--Chris Combs