Massive Attack have been taking aim at American data analytics and software corporation Palantir in their new live show, describing the company’s aims as “terrifying.”
The trip-hop giants have been sharing their stance towards the infamous surveillance tech company during the structure of their new live show, and during their set at Primavera Sound later this week, they will be making use of “custom-made facial recognition software” that has been designed to “scan a 75,000-person crowd” and pull their faces up on screen, labelling them with satirical descriptors like “11 weeks no time off, burnout” and “unfinished books,” according to Novara Media.
Speaking to the outlet, the design is a jab at Palantir, which was founded 20 years ago by billionaire Peter Thiel and has financial backing from the CIA, with clients including the US and Israeli militaries, ICE, the FBI and the NHS.
After debuting the show in Helsinki, Robert Del Naja told Novara Media that he wanted to make people more aware of the company’s expansion from “kill chain tech” used in Gaza to now accessing the medical records of people living in Britain.
“We really need a much wider debate on the suitability of a company like this having such capture of our societal infrastructure,” he explained, going on to add that the criticism runs throughout Massive Attack’s two-hour set, and was made alongside regular collaborator Adam Curtis and London-based art collective United Visual Artists.
“One visual element represents how a Palantir Gotham monitoring and ‘decision chain’ interface might look,” Del Naja said. “Using facial recognition technology, it lands on groups and individuals – implying a consequential outcome for a given target.”
“I find their declarations, objectives and moral framing pretty terrifying,” Del Naja added. “To enable AI systems to map police records, satellite tracked locations, health records and personal financial transactions and place all of that information – for the first time – into the hands of a company with an overt political agenda and social objectives of its own is a huge, potentially irreversible and dangerous overreach.”
One section of Massive Attack’s latest show, during the haunting end of ‘Girl I Love You’, also displays a quote from Peter Thiel that reads: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”.
Massive Attack have been consistent in their support for Palestine, among myriad progressive causes, recently vowing to boycott Spotify in response to reports that the platform’s CEO Daniel Ek has made significant investments “in a company producing military munition drones and AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft.”
