On Thursday, Chico State student Will Mobley presented his Bachelor of Fine Arts culminating exhibition. The exhibit, “Digicom,” focused on the “13 faces” that control the current state of the internet and the misinformation that is spread throughout.

The faces displayed were distorted digitally, depending on the way the individual warped the current state of the internet. Mobley took the images and printed them onto circular wood tablets, combining an old form of art and the new distortion of media. The initial shock of the distorted faces and the ambient music playing in a dark room in Ayres Hall aided in the exhibit’s ability to disseminate the messages that Mobley set out to convey.

The exhibition was meant to highlight the importance of the people attached to the faces while providing context for their actions. The people exhibited ranged from internet leaders such as Mark Zuckerburg and Ajit Pai to Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.

The exhibit focused on how social media redefined human connection, net neutrality and the creation of an entirely new currency that has bankrupted lives and created fortunes for others. The end result is how these faces have influenced humanity.

“It’s not about the relations we have with these platforms, it’s about what we do and how we connect to each other,” Mobley said. “The show, the aesthetics of it is in black and white, and to me that was really playing on the idea of polarization…I started to think about how we polarize things online.”

Mobley wanted the viewer to absorb his art and make their own conclusions as to what and how the internet has changed the way we communicate with fellow humans. In addition, he wanted to expose the people that are currently influencing the largest source of information that exists today.

Abram Melendez can be reached at [email protected]