Hito Steyerl is a multimedia artist who works with film, visual arts, and writing, born in 1966 in West Germany. Her main interest is essay documentaries with a focus on media and technology. Steyerl is a German born artist and has exhibited around the world.
Steyerl’s video works and essay documentaries have been highly influential in the conceptual art movement, as she blends together multiple disciplines like politics, art, and philosophy. One of her most explored themes is the intersection of technology, media, digitization, and politics. One of her most well-known works, How Not To Be Seen. A Fucking Didactic Educational.MOV File explores how in an ever increasingly digital world with mass surveillance, it is almost impossible not to be seen, but at the same time it is impossible to be fully seen. Her work as a filmmaker truly showed with this essay documentary.
While Steyerl’s work has focused on the negative aspects of technology, Power Plants investigate possible positives of new technology by using AI to predict what future plants will look like. Currently, Steyerl is considered to be one of the most important figures in modern art and filmmakers throughout the world. Her installations have been shown around the world, including England, Germany, the USA, Italy, and Amsterdam. Her work has made her one of the most important people in modern art, blurring the boundaries between art and documentary. Steyerl is currently still working actively on new projects. She was named as the number one most influential person in contemporary art in 2017.
References:
http://www.andrewkreps.com/artists/the-work-of-hito-steyerl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hito_Steyerl#cite_note-26
http://thisistomorrow.info/articles/artist-profile-hito-steyerl