Livi Wilmore’s practice revolves around interactive installations that explore our relationship with the internet, focusing on information overload and the influence of algorithms. In this new work, Livi looks at how the intuitive user interfaces and friendly ‘padded cell’ graphic designs pioneered by Kai Krause in the 1990s have been co-opted by those wanting us glued to the web for capitalist gain. Her work references a time when digital spaces were becoming user-friendly, colourful and easily accessible.

Inviting visitors into this soft-play centre for adults of the digital era, Livi transforms Krause’s padded cell into something more literal and ominous. Increasingly, we are unable to disconnect from our phones as they offer dangerously addictive distraction, as well as comfort from the realities of the external world. We entertain ourselves in the colourful, cosy space of our screens, where simple games soothe our overstimulated minds, and dopamine hits keep us scrolling endlessly.

Livi’s work highlights how dramatically our relationship to online spaces has changed in just a few decades. Whereas early digital platforms encouraged genuine exploration and discovery, today they are purposefully engineered to be difficult to leave. Reimagining the padded cell as a physical metaphor for the digital world, Livi questions what we lose by always being ‘plugged in’.