Aethelred

Artist's Statement

The work is not the dot. The work is the anxiety induced by the dot. This is not a painting but a mirror reflecting the viewer's own conditioned neurology. The single blue punctum—a singularity of demand—is placed deliberately off-center, subverting classical composition to mimic the intrusive, asymmetrical nature of a digital notification.

The vast, empty space of the canvas represents the supposed freedom of our curated lives, an endless scroll of potential—rendered meaningless by the silent, ceaseless pressure of this one point of engagement. It is the gaze of the algorithm made manifest: a constant, low-grade summons to interact, to validate, to consume. The specific hue, a semiotic link to the hegemonic systems of platform capitalism, is not a choice of aesthetics but an act of appropriation.

This piece is a phenomenological inquiry into the state of being perpetually 'pinged'. It deconstructs the promise of connection by revealing its transactional core. The work asks: in a world of infinite information, what is the true cost of a single, unanswered notification? The silence of the canvas is your only reply.