PLASTIC CONTROL

Plastic Control took place at Four Corners gallery, London UK. The exhibition uses photography, text, sculpture and interactive pieces to interrogate the storytelling and world building practice of online conspiracy theory communities. During the exhibition, a series of workshops took place in the gallery in which participants undertook a number of tasks designed to evoke the meaning making and storytelling practices of online conspiracy theory communities.

In an essay titled, Of Clouds and Clocks [1], published in 1966, Karl Popper presented a theory which proposed a compromise between chaos and determinism - between the unpredictability of cloud-like systems and predictability of clock-like systems. He called this theory, ‘plastic control’. It extended beyond accounting for organic or mechanical systems to include how language and social interactions control our actions, arguing that we use ‘critical arguments [as] a means of control; … a means of eliminating errors’, though our conclusions are always under review and open to discussion; it is a form of ‘control with feedback’ and that ‘what counts in the long run is a good argument - valid argument - and what it establishes or refutes.’

He was careful to acknowledge however, that these conclusions were not always useful or productive, and that ‘different aims may compete’. And so the result of this process of error-elimination depends on the question being asked, and the motivations of those asking it.

The exhibition, PLASTIC CONTROL is part of an ongoing and interdisciplinary research project by artist and postgraduate researcher, William Lakin, on the subject of online conspiracy theory communications. The focus is the online forums used to discuss the 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory - a narrative which suggests the existence of a satanic human trafficking ring facilitated by the Clintons and operating out of the basement of a Washington DC pizza restaurant.

These forum discussions produce carefully balanced social ecosystems; spaces in which narratives are formed collectively through recycling well-known conspiracy tropes, reframing history and appropriating fiction. By taking part in these discussions the forum users engage in a collective act of world-building, creating an alternative reality in which they have ultimate control over their chosen narrative, and a space which provides opportunities for endless storytelling and identity expression.

Fuelled by emotive and hyperbolic rhetoric, these forums are spaces in which moral binaries, religious evangelism and strict social policing flourish in order to delineate ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups, leaving no room for dissent. Discussion oscillates between reflexive, emotive outbursts and concerted efforts to make sense of these outbursts - to displace fears, anxieties and discomfort - through attempts to map the social structure of the world and to account for overwhelming feelings of alienation. The product of these efforts is a narrative which exaggerates power relations; framing them as an existential battle between good and evil, with little ambiguity.

However, conspiracy theorists are not necessarily wrong for believing that oppressive and opaque systems of power influence our lives. At the heart of many conspiracy theories is the assumption that the wealthy and powerful have unequal influence and get away with things that the rest of us would not. It would be naive to imagine that resources and opportunities are distributed without prejudice. Equally, it is absurd to believe that our reality is pre-determined by a cabal of devil-worshipping occultists. And so the temptation is to look for a compromise, however imperfect, that attempts to resolve this contradiction.

The internet and social media have allowed for greater access to information and more opportunities to connect with others, however there appears to be an increasing discord between our consumption of information online and our shared perception of reality. In light of our increasingly networked but subjectively siloed online experience, Popper’s theory of Plastic Control maps well to the highly personalised and tailored approach to problem-solving and, in the case of conspiracy theories, accounts for a malfunction in error-elimination; the emphasis is on the result being user-friendly and satisfying to the motivations of those asking the questions.

In the same way that Popper described Plastic Control as a form of ‘control with feedback’, conspiracy theories themselves adapt to new information and circumstances - they morph and mould to the shape and size of our concerns. They mirror, but they distort, like the mirrors of a fairground fun house. Critical discussion online often takes the form of reflexive contrarianism and sprawling associative storytelling. The product is a kind of cultural residue; an incidental and incoherent cocktail of fiction, history and entertainment. A creeping contrarian ideology which is both familiar and absurd.

The works in this exhibition are a response to the nature of conspiracy communications and invites the viewer to narrativise; to interpret the works and to consider the relationship between storytelling and meaning-making typical of social interactions but which, in our heavily networked and algorithmically-curated online spaces, takes on new significance and leads to unexpected consequences.

[1] Karl Popper, Of Clouds and Clocks (St. Louis: Washington University, 1966).

• Author