Ekaterina Ivanova
Deleted: traces of invisible impact

The installation consists of metal plates placed at a 90-degree angle. Their surface bears a repeated laser-cut pattern resembling traces or signals, with some areas partially erased but still somewhat visible. When viewed from a new angle, new fragments and areas of tension emerge, allowing the viewer only to get a fragmented image of the object, being required to move around it to view all of its aspects.

The work addresses the illusory notion of data deletion in the digital environment. The processes of storage and deletion remain unseen, giving us a feeling of control, which is actually unfounded from the infrastructural point of view, because what is called “deletion” is only a conventional operation that leaves traces, simply changing the data’s form and degree of availability. The project draws parallels between these processes and physical changes in steel, where laser marking irreversibly changes the microstructure of the metal and subsequent cleaning can only partially erase the patterns.

To visualize the impact that the digital environment has on us, a pattern is used that corresponds to the word “cortisol”. Stainless steel, which is traditionally associated with safety and reliability, is now a vessel of residual memory of past stress and anxiety. Cortisol, the stress-regulating hormone, acts as a symbol of the tension that is always present somewhere in the background. The feeling of anxiety appears not as a reaction to a specific threat, but as a constant mode of existence in a digital environment, where threats are not always visible, but are always implied.