Dark Alphabet

Life online offers escape, connection and possibility. It can also become a prison of one’s own making. Dark Alphabet explores this tension, examining how digital spaces shape language, behaviour and mental health.

Matthew da Silva grew up before the internet became embedded in everyday life. In 1995, while working in Tokyo, he helped make his employer one of the first fifty companies in Japan to launch a website. Rather than a digital native, he is a sceptical participant in cyberspace.

Early optimism about the internet’s potential gave way to concern as online platforms began to mirror the conflicts and power structures of the offline world. What once promised openness increasingly resembled a battleground, prompting regulation and public debate around safety, wellbeing and communication.

Using a distinctly Pop aesthetic, Dark Alphabet explores these shifts through watercolour and collage. Watercolour introduces unpredictability, while collage disrupts and overlays meaning. Colour and line interact in unexpected ways, reflecting the layered, fragmented nature of online experience.

This body of work does not offer solutions. Instead, it invites reflection on how language, imagery and emotion operate in digital culture, and on the cost of remaining connected.