Jeroen De Wandel investigates the interaction between our psychological (well) being, technology and manipulation. What does the ‘like’-economy, the constant influence and exposure to disinformation mean for the future society: doesn’t the social animal, man, just become more anti-social and more alienated from reality?

Information has always been considered power; however, disinformation or targeted ‘manipulated’ information yields much more power today: the total surrender of the individual to an idea. In this respect, control communism in China, cults and movements such as QAnon are not so very different.

Polarizing opinions, fake news stories packaged as conspiracy theories, they are ubiquitous today. The algorithms, designed to hold the attention span as long as possible, feed the sensationalism endlessly. Technology is used by just about anyone with a commercial or political goal as the ultimate weapon to gain control over what someone thinks and how someone acts.

Nocebo was initially  a group project by three photographers, whose work is situated on the border between photography and visual arts. Each in their own way, Christophe Simoen, Jeroen De Wandel and Kirsi Kempkes tackled the concept of fear and the preceding mechanisms of (soft) indoctrination and lust for power. The subject allowed to think and explore art beyond their comfort zone.