“My most recent project, Divine Light, centres around the concept that we live in a world where technology has become the new religion.” explains recently graduated photographer Ruby Steele about her new series what will make you think.
“Technology’s ultimate power and authority is comparative to that held by religion a century ago, a power which is exemplified through its ability to be used for good and evil alongside its indispensable place in modern life. The images exploring the elaborate relationships of power to how we perceive humanity, construct society and identify ourselves. It compares the religious supremacy of the past with the authority now wielded by omniscient mobile technology. The divine light used by Christianity in stained glass windows to underline the authority of the sacred image, has now been replaced by our devotion to the image on our phone screens in the modern era. Its ultimate power and authority is comparative to that held by religion a century ago. As an implicit religion, it is based on the sacralisation of the relationship people have with computers.
Mobile technology offers both a platform to form an identity for oneself via social media, and a tool of knowledge. It also offers an escape from reality, into a world of idealism and pretence. The anonymity it provides gives confidence to the weakest of people, strength that religion once offered. We inhabit a world where the power lies in the devices that we own.”
