Armour Of Contempt

Daniel Burley  /  Anna Engelhardt  /  Ed Fornieles  /  Lucas Hadjam  /  Youri Johnson  /  John Stark  /  Alisa Tochylovska

22nd September – 9th December 2023

The Armour Of Contempt is both a short lived London based Grindcore/Powerviolence band and a Warhammer 40,000 novel written by Dan Abnett, later becoming an overpowered buff in the main 40K game. This dichotomy can be constructed into an amalgamated concept between an aggressive anti-society lifestyle and a geeky fantasy world. This leads us to a position where that nerdy aggression, intertwined with technology and the power of war, could be utilised in describing some of the darker realms of the Internet. For all of the connectivity that the Internet brings, it also has the ability to sow seeds of disconnection between us, a chaotic evil summoned by the dimly lit dwellers of these domains. The anonymity produced online acts as a layer of protection where people can project whatever image they want of themselves or whatever information they want to put out, be it true or untrue.

This grim dark dungeon is inhabited by trolls, information vampires and a powerful sorcery of untruths, enabled by the power enchanted by the Armour of Contempt. Terminally online main characters of their own lives who have chosen to turn their backs on the real world and live in a pseudo reality as a NPC. Tormented cries of “FTW” ring out through the dank corridors, but you struggle to tell if they mean For The Win or Fuck The World. Non-physical interactive microaggressions released from a gamified simulation of control, manipulating pieces on a board, role playing out in a vindictive quest for first blood. As the line between fantasy and reality blurs, the disenfranchised minds of trolls summon maleficent fiends void of feels. With no repercussions for their actions, the distance of the screen neutralises emotion and negates compassion, casting an anti-social nihilism, a viral nihilism.

The Armour of Contempt could be seen by its wearer to inhabit protective powers, shielding them against the scorn of society through its own misanthropic nihilism. Technology enabled banishment, mentally self imposed, physically removed, a doctrine of incelerationist software under developers. The internet is a place of great freedom, which exudes social and communication values but also allows a darkness to fester. The mix of Capitalism and the Internet breeds inferiority complexes and bitterness - FOMO with real fear becomes the bitterness of exclusion. The paradox of social media is that people post to depict an idealist vision of how they wish to be perceived, appreciated and respected, yet secret hate scrolling conjures idols of hate, jealousy and anxiety; dis-content creators. Social media transmutes into a platform for self obsession and clout farming - modern posting embodying the individualistic nature of postmodern capitalism.

The internet neatly organises social communications and information networks to allow governments and other power players to control their own lore. Politics and propaganda has always been post-truth, ruling elites have always obfuscated their intentions, using various tactics to keep the populations onside, but fake news and alternative facts confuse the truth so much that nobody knows which way is up anymore. Russia’s troll farms sow the seeds of discontent through memetic warfare whilst China’s hacker army quests in cyber conflict and total information dominance. The votes for both Trump and Brexit were fought on the information front, with both the officer class of Cambridge Analytica’s targeted profiling and degenerate internet shock troops fighting ‘The Great Meme War’ in the 4chan trenches. The final level boss, a level 12 warlock named General Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and NSA utters “we kill people based on metadata” as the fog of war dissipates at the edges of this dark-web dungeon. The NSA mantra etched deep in its enchanted staff reads ’Sniff It All, Collect It All, Know It All, Process It All, Exploit It All’, an incantation for the most malicious warez ever deployed on society.