Intertwined Intimacy is a series of architectural sculptures ruminating on privacy and intimacy, and how the infrastructure of visible and invisible spaces influences communities, communications, and safety.
This work stems from artist Caroline Sinders' previous work combining research driven art and human rights analysis that responds to current technology systems by focusing on how the design of 'infrastructural' and 'architectural' spaces, both online and offline, impacts safety. By focusing on prototypian futures, Intertwined Intimacy observes impacts through public infrastructure, and open, digital commons inspired by mutual aid and open source technology. To generate this research, Sinders analyzed how structures, metaphors and engagements of privacy and security within technology impact mental models The sculptures create a labyrinth, allowing for a space of reflection and consideration for the audience, as the sculptures slowly become more and more opaque, offering areas of hidden solitude and refuge.
Caroline Sinders is the 2023 Roman J. Witt Artist in Residence. This annual international competition awards one residency per academic year to a visiting artist/designer who proposes to develop a new work in collaboration with members of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the University of Michigan community. Learn more about Sinders' residency and practice in this Q&A.
Sinders is an award winning critical designer, researcher, and artist. She is the founder of human rights and design lab, Convocation Research + Design. For the past few years, she has been examining the intersections of artificial intelligence, intersectional justice, systems design, harm, and politics in digital conversational spaces and technology platforms. She has worked with the Tate Exchange at the Tate Modern, the United Nations,the European Commission, Ars Electronica, the Harvard Kennedy School and others. Sinders is currently based between London, UK and New Orleans, USA.