Electric Shock is a report on electricity. Electricity refers to “a fundamental form of energy expressed in terms of the movement and interaction of electrons.” It is an important resource that allows contemporary human society to function. A life without electricity is hard to imagine, for that would mean a life without household appliances, digital consumption, advanced production lines, and logistics systems. What’s more, the recent commercialization of artificial intelligence (AI) and the expansion of Big Tech have exponentially increased the consumption of electricity, putting even greater strain on the power grid. Ensuring a stable supply of electricity has become a question of paramount importance, as it is directly related to how quickly advanced technologies such as AI can be integrated into the competitiveness of a state or an enterprise. This is the age of “electric hegemony,” where endless lust for technological advancement gives rise to attempts that seek to maximize electric power generation with finite resources. It is an age where electricity no longer functions solely as a source of energy that enriches people’s lives: it is now a weapon that determines people’s survival. This ravenous hunger for electricity has led to unrestrained development, turning efforts toward carbon neutrality to naive promises that delay technological advancement. Voices that have called for “sustainable” coexistence, such as post-humanism, reflections on the Anthropocene, and investigations into the relationship between the humans and the non-humans, have been relegated into the pages of history, left behind by the world embroiled in the “war for electricity.” Electric Shock uses the circuitry of electricity to reveal and trace the sharp relationship between technology and the environment.

Mobile Docent for Electric Shock

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