Text Neck

Text Neck, a new project by David Politer created during an artist-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center, takes a darkly comedic look at how Smartphones are changing our bodies and minds. The project gets its name from a repetitive strain injury caused by dropping your head forward while looking down at a mobile device. The episodic video follows nine individuals as they navigate new ways of interacting, communicating and living in the age of the Smartphone.

Through humor, physical empathy and emotion, Text Neck offers opportunity, through multiple installation components, for the audience to engage directly in the behaviors developing in tandem with Smartphone technology.

Text Neck grew organically out of collaboration and improvisation. By interviewing forty people about their Smartphone habits, collecting ideas, and anecdotes, David Politzer and his community collaborators created scene outlines; some with a developed narrative, others open-ended questions, “What if we did this?” The result is both a cautionary tale and a love letter to the Smartphone.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.