One of the reasons this project-laboratory is called “Invisible” is because, every time I tackle a research topic, I come to the realisation that what matters most in understanding a problem and its context is normally hidden and shielded for view, unless you make the effort to scratch beneath the surface and uncover new perspectives, connections and data.

“Invisible” because we work behind closed doors which keep part of reality at bay, and the convergence between the project and the outside world gives rise to unexpected interactions and consequences, which materialise out of thin air like a ghost.

And lastly, “invisible” because I am a woman, a young person and look even younger than I really am, which makes me invisible in many cases.

After a period spent observing and understanding, I separated this invisibility into several layers. These forms of invisibility are not exclusive, but are superimposed atop one another like a Matryoshka, a Russian doll.

1. Icall the first and outermost layer Performative Invisibility. This is, in my opinion, the most obvious layer. It emerges when invisibility is imposed like a veil atop existing realities, denying their right to be seen.

Such is the case, for instance, in situations related to race, gender identity, social status and sexual orientation. As a society, we have and continue to impose a layer of invisibility atop whatever makes us uncomfortable and which escapes normative principles, stamping out its right to be seen. Within this imposed form of invisibility I would like to include the practices of submission and violence to which we subject other sentient beings, animals, in exploitive environments such as industrial farms, settings where information is lost and the process is rendered invisible, so that we may continue with the same consumption habits without batting an eyelid.

2. The next layer is Manufactured Invisibility, a conscious form of concealment, like a magic trick, common in new technological realities.

The notion that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (Arthur C. Clarke) is today an essential principle of technology; the mechanisms have become invisible, imperceptible. We can no longer open a machine and see how it works; there are no cogs or pieces that make it comprehensible. Digital technology is cryptic, algorithmic, invisible and unintelligible for the vast majority of humans.

We prefer convenience over comprehension. We accept the terms and conditions despite not being able to decipher their meaning and in doing so have relinquished control over our data. Today’s technology also reflects the personal and ideological biases of its creators. Biases are invisible; consequences are not. It is also astounding how large technology companies are able to render invisible their impact on the physical world, as in the case of Facebook and its servers in the Arctic, which consume massive amounts of energy and require infrastructure that alter the environment and determine our destiny on the planet.

3. We can also talk in terms of Discursive Invisibility when what is invisible dictates our understanding of things. This refers to the myths, ideologies and traditions we share with one other and which either give meaning to our existence or render it meaningless.

An example of Discursive Invisibility it what is occurring with the knowledge being generated about the climate crisis. According to Timothy Morton, it is a phenomenon that, due to its complexity and mass scale, we are incapable of completely comprehending. We are therefore faced with a kind of epistemological invisibility. It is a hyperobject, of which we can only see blurred fragments. Therefore, the only way to understand the crisis is through the stories we are told by people from the fields of History, Science, Economics, Philosophy and Politics, and the filter of ideology. A form of invisibility which becomes visible in discourse.

4. And lastly, Projective Invisibility, which makes reference to the colonisation of our collective imaginations. It has to do with the invisible limits that define the realm of what is imaginable and influence possible futures, reducing the infinite possibilities to a manageable number. The stories about our future do not lack ownership, emerge slowly and eventually become unavoidable.

In the end, what is clear is that invisibility can be either a tool of privilege or a tool of subjection. And “the invisible” are not so much invisible as that we see the world through the wrong “lenses”. That is why my goal is to generate contexts and strategies that help to collectively unveil these hidden realities and, by doing so, improve our understanding of the world around us.