The Era of Free Information and Censored Minds 

An Interdisciplinary Dialogue for Mindful Data Consumption

How is a community formed? What strategies do we use to transmit identity and collective aims? How can we translate subjectivity − our “soul” − into binary systems? By what means can we create a more flourishing future together at the threshold of physical and virtual realities? These questionsare raised by New Tab, a recent exhibition in Timișoara, organised by the MV Sci-Art Cultural Center in collaboration with the Faculty of Mechanics – Polytechnic University of Timișoara. The exhibition is on view in the faculty’s lobby until January 19^th, 2026.

The title and conceptual framework of the exhibition convey the symbolism of new beginnings by projecting empirical philosophy − most notably the concept of tabula rasa − onto the terminology and logic of digital technology. Simultaneously, the metaphor of multiple browser tabs and the rhizomatic labyrinth of hyperlinks models contemporary community networks, both human and non-human, united by the circulation of information and by diverse modes of reception and perception.

In the exhibition space, examples of different modes of information exchange can be found: visible and audible, invisible and hidden, or coded ones. The installation LA (2024) of Ciprian Chirileanu, member of the artistic group Grupul de niciunde^[1], creates a multisensory experience by combining visual and auditory elements. The monumental composition imitates the structure and function of a tuning fork, producing a synesthetic effect between the senses of sight and hearing. The artist also works with the medium of motion picture. Similarly to the installation mentioned above, sound and noise occupy a central role in his exhibited videos (Areas of Silence, Auroras, Shock Wave, Telepathy; 2024), where they are linked to various scientific phenomena. However, in this case they affect our perception beyond senses or rational cognition. Shock wave, for example, demonstrates an extremely intense sound explosion capable of moving  objects with a telekinetic force;  such waves are also used in medical practice, among other applications, for the treatment of kidney stones. Another work, telepathy, illustrates the transmission of information through brain waves, suggesting a mental connection between the conscious and the unconscious, the visible and the invisible, the explicable and the inexplicable.

The video installation Fringed Objects (2024) of Floriama Cândea, an artist born in Bechet (Dolj County) also engages with the duality of certainty and doubt, grounded in perception and associative interpretation of reality. The composition deconstructs and reconstructs the structures of seemingly familiar objects; through this process,the fluctuating dynamism of perception outweighs our compulsion for knowledge-based categorization. The unhinged flow of recontextualized and reframed information creates a space for exploration and offers the opportunity to examine our thought processes from an alternative perspective.

Sabina Suru’s video, Unnamed objects #1–#20 (2025), reveals hidden connections beneath the surface from an even more abstract perspective. Her work dismantles every familiar layer and recognizable trait of the twenty elements of the periodic table used in her artistic experiment, transforming matter into data. On the monitor, various values appear beneath each element’s name, representing, among other parameters, pH levels or percentages of electrical conductivity. In this way, the composition raises the question of how we perceive an object or an entity once it is stripped of its specific characteristics and reduced to mere numerical information.

Ioan Rusan’s installation, Analize și diagrame (Statistics and diagrams, 2024), approaches the theme of coded communication from an entirely different angle. The diagrams and statistics displayed on a clothesline refer to the ingenious and resourceful coping strategies developed by Romanian citizens under the communist regime in order to maintain contact with the free Western countries. During Nicolae Ceaușescu’s dictatorship, Radio Free Europe was first heavily censored and later completely banned in Romania. The population, however, didn’t accept this decision, and continued to follow  the news of the free press by using antennae camouflaged as drying lines. Romanian historian Ruxandra Petrincă, a specialist in the country’s socialist and post-communist periods, recounts a similar anecdote in one of her essays – both an amusing and a shocking testimony of the past. “A guy wearing a thick jacket and knit trousers, carrying an antenna topped with a white light on his back, enters a room where a similarly laden man stands with his ear pressed to a Russian radio. The latter sees the interloper and, more importantly, notices that the light is white, not red. He signals him to keep quiet and continues listening to Radio Free Europe (RFE). (…) This is a love and hate story built around something no one can see or touch: radio waves.” (Petrincă 2019, 179)^[2] As the selected excerpt illustrates s, for many Romanian the intangible and ephemeral nature of  radio waves offered a vital  connection to the outside world, functioning simultaneously as an act of resistance and a symbol of hope.

Ionel Mărginean’s installation, Progresul undelor (The Progress of Waves, 2024) is another example of  invisible, oneway information distribution. The work enters into a dialogue with Rusan’s composition, yet approaches the subject from a considerably  more optimistic perspective in terms of its political and sociocultural message. From a scientific standpoint, progressive waves are waves that travel in a single direction, transmitting energy without transporting matter and without altering their amplitude or direction, as long as they propagate through the same medium. On a symbolical level, this fenomenon can be read as a reference to the slow yet continuous progress of the Romanian society following the revolutions of 1989. Furthermore, the installation evokes the renewal of the country’s artistic waves, which initially existed as fragmented and independent realities, yet gradually influenced one another and disseminated their messages to wider audiences. The work also plays with the multiple meanings of the Romanian word unde, which denotes not only the plural form of wave, but also  the interrogative where. In this way, the installation encodes an additional philosophical layer, inviting reflection on the questions of where we come from and where we are heading.

In addition, the exhibition can also be understood as a social experiment. These works “invade” the personal and intimate spaces of students at the Faculty of Mechanics, a gesture that  has provoked mixed reactions among them. While  not everyone was enthusiastic about the concept, many students proved curious and open to the idea of coexisting with the installations. Certain works address this situation  on a meta-reflective level, interacting with members of the faculty in ways that are at times engaging and at other times deliberately unsettling.

One such work is Mihai Toth‘s installation In the Back of My Head (2024), which creates the illusion of a damaged electrical cable with exposed wires. Many postgraduates were frightened by the sight, believing the cable to be electrically charged and perceiving it as a potential source of danger. As the incident circulated, more and more people spoke up, only to discover that the cable was not live. On the one hand, this challenges the viewer’s perception of reality; on the other, it compellingly models the rapid  circulation of information, demostrating that its speed remains the same whether or not the news is grounded in fact.

The danger of fake news and distorted information used as propaganda are addressed  even more explicitly in 13m10j (Marius Jurca)’s digital installation Social Media {ZOO} (2022), which invites visitors to engage in a seemingly playful  interactive game. Beneath  the charming surface of animal emojis, lies a far more serious message: when more than one element is activated at the same time, the monologues and news reports in different languages merge into an indistinguishable soundscape, producing an incomprehensible auditory chaos. This evokes the constant “digital noise” generated by the overwhelming flow of information from news outlets and social media platforms. Within this virtual maze, it becomes increasingly difficult to navigate consciously and to distinguish fiction from fact. The situation is further intensified by the neuroeconomics  logic of attention^[3], which transforms our interest into profit and tries to compress sensation-driven content into easily consumable formats. One of the most troubling consequencse of this process is the erosion of our critical and analytical thinking, leaving individuals more vulnerable to manipulation. The title itself cynically underscores how emotions and instinctual, almost animalistic reactions tend to dominate in virtual space, as users gradually abandon rational, reflective modes of engagement.

Finally, it is also worth mentioning kinema ikon ‘s installation, Bogdanator (2019−2025), which, in contrast to the previous work, demonstrates how a machine can be humanized and endowed with appealing characteristics. The human-sized, furry, burgundy creature, with its anthropomorphic and animalistic features, brings to life a playful, fictional hybrid entity that strongly evokes the idea of an imaginary childhood friend. The key difference is that instead of a face, the figure features a display showing various moving images. From the perspective of the experiment, this reimagined information carrier proved to be the most popular among students, many of whom claimed that it helped them reconnect with their inner child, while others began to regard it as the mascot of the department.

Everything and everyone is made up of data and can be reduced to it.. However, this exhibition made me realize that information is not merely a form of power, but it can also function as a source of hope and faith in a free future, a medium for shared narratives, and a vessel carrying layers of reality that can only be discovered by looking beneath the surface.

New Tab (artists: Floriama Cândea, Grupul de niciunde, 13m10j/ Marius Jurca, kinema ikon, Sabina Suru; curator: Mirela Stoeac-Vlăduți; curator assistant: Miruna Robescu) MV Sci-Art Cultural Center, Faculty of Mechanics – Polytechnic University of Timișoara, 2025. 11. 27 – 2026. 01. 19.

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[1] The group was founded on a temporary basis in connection with the art initiative Unde de niciunde and the exhibition New Tab. Other participants in the project include Mihai Toth, an artist from Timișoara, and Ionel Mărginean and Ioan Rusan, engineers from Timișoara.

[2] Petrinca R. Radio waves, memories, and the politics of everyday life in socialist

Romania: The case of Radio Free Europe. Centaurus. 2019;61:178–199. https://doi.org/10.

1111/1600-0498.12232

[3] Social media doesn’t merely capture our attention; it commodifies it. Using neuroeconomic principles, platforms collect data on what attracts and sustains users’ focus.. Then leveraged to predict and influence behavior, ensuring that advertisements are precisely tailored to individual preferences.