Mobile Discobolus & Digital Wellbeing

I remember first seeing a photograph of the statue of the discus thrower in a book in 1971 and unsurprisingly the image has remained with me ever since.

The The Discobolus of Myron (“discus thrower“, Greek: Diskobólos) is a Greek sculpture completed at the start of the Classical period at around 460–450 BC. The sculpture depicts a youthful male athlete throwing a discus. The original Greek bronze is lost but the work is known through numerous Roman copies.

The athlete depicted in the statue would not be familiar with the concept of ‘digital wellbeing’. I’ve transposed the athlete into the 21st century and replaced the discuss with a mobile phone and given him headphones. The statue is no longer a celebration of athleticism. It asks who are we today and how different are we from the ancient Greeks? What would the ancient Greeks think of 21st century, consumerism and digital communication? Would they consider our pervasive digital connection to the world a false reality? Would they see a mobile phone and it’s demand for attention as a threat to genuine communication between people? Would they throw the phone away?

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