The Art of Interrogation

Hacking the City with Bill Posters

Over the last 10 years, the artists who have evolved from street art practices have become a force in generating awareness and support for global issues. Beyond the central-casting image of activist “leftie,” they make works as innovative as they are engaging. Where some promote a call to action, others seek to illuminate the growing disparity in our understanding of visible and invisible threats. This is a great opportunity to speak to an artist who advocates the dire need to understand our lack of understanding. You might not be familiar with his background in environmental protests, or his 15 years of street and contemporary art projects, but you likely have seen some of his award-winning, network-based interventions, which include the digital manipulation of people such as Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian via social media.

Meet Barnaby Francis, better known by his pseudonym, Bill Posters. Activist, artist and author, Posters investigates and exposes the armor of corporate control, revealing the imposed obfuscation of truth through his elegant art interventions. By shining a spotlight on the invisible forces designed to influence us, he questions how vulnerable our collective and individual identities have become in the age of surveillance capitalism.

Charlotte Pyatt: There is some pretty heavy, cross-disciplinary theory that drives the development of your work. What got you started down this path?