Sergeant S.N.A.F.U.
"Situation Normal, All Fucked Up"
INFORMATION IS OFFICIALLY A WEAPON
Venice May 9 – September 30
Sergeant S.N.A.F.U. is a sculptural series by Anne de Carbuccia exploring the power of information and its use as an instrument of warfare. Now on exhibition in Venice
Campo della Carità | Dorsoduro 1051
Next to the Accademia Bridge
Opening hours (Wed - Sun): 10:00 - 18:30
"We now live in a post truth society.
Information is weaponised everywhere.
To be powerful you need the strongest information army.
Using a microphone can kill but can also kill you.
It’s an instrument of warfare.
This war, this crisis is global.
We are not going to overcome misinformation, distortion and propaganda.
The best we can do is manage it.
We have the tools: we have our reason and we have our emotions.
And to fight back we have our humanity."
Anne de Carbuccia
SITUATION NORMAL, ALL FUCKED UP
Meet Sergeant S.N.A.F.U, a stylized soldier whose weapon is actually a microphone. The image is precise: language has become artillery and broadcast its ammunition at scale. The historic military acronym S.N.A.F.U. (“Situation Normal: All Fucked Up”) sarcastically defines a chaotic situation that has become the accepted norm. In today’s information battlefield it frames a condition in which disorder is no longer exceptional but operational. Misinformation, propaganda and incitement move like weapons through global networks.
THE WAR ON TRUTH
The S.N.A.F.U. soldiers are the sentinels of a new kind of warfare, one without front lines, where the terrain is perception itself and the casualties are truth and collective understanding. With this series, Anne gives physical form to an otherwise intangible conflict: the fake news war where information is officially a weapon.
THE SOLDIERS
Rendered in chrome, the soldiers act as both armor and mirror, their reflective surfaces capturing and implicating the viewer. Disorienting, reflective and seductive, they echo the polished surfaces of media systems designed to capture and dominate attention. The soldiers evoke immediately legible toy figures. This familiarity sharpens the tension: they are at once toys and instruments of control, mixing innocence and militarization. They also reveal an invisible war driven by algorithms that amplify division and escalate content.
Algorithms also play a key role in this "S.N.A.F.U." situation. These systems, designed to maximize engagement, often create echo chambers where like-minded individuals are fed increasingly extreme content. This algorithmic polarization means that propaganda and even calls for violence can find us before we even consciously seek them out. The gun that ends in a microphone is a powerful metaphor for this process: communication, a tool for dialogue, has become an aggressive, destructive force, its reach amplified by unseen digital mechanisms that weaponize our attention and biases.
MAKING OF
3D MODELING: PIETRO TRANCHELLINI
MANUFACTURING: R3DIRECT
COLOR FINISHING: CROMO&DESIGN