Installation #1: Computer-Mouse Pantograph, 2018
When our personal information travels instantly from our devices, to the internet, to an algorithm, to a company who may use it and sell it, it is a nearly insurmountable task for any individual to navigate a clear understanding of the intangible ways in which personal data is translated and used.
The works in this collection of interactive installations are created to mimic gamified data systems. Social media tools use gamified data collection to obtain images and pieces of personal information from thousands of participants. For example, Google Arts & Cultures’ Face Match asks individuals to upload a selfie, and an algorithm matches their picture with an art historical portrait painting. The take-away for the user is a combined photo of their selfie and the matched painting, which they are prompted to share with friends. Similarly, Facebook’s 10-Year Challenge asks users to juxtapose a current selfie with one taken exactly a decade earlier. Both companies receive a large quantity of diverse and carefully taken photos by willing participants, and can analyze this data for various scientific and cultural studies.
The public is left to speculate if this information will be used in constructive ways (e.g., to analyze the cultural biases of museum archives, such as the history of western portrait painting as depicting mostly white persons), or if these information technology companies might be using the images towards undisclosed monetization practices ( e.g. to train facial recognition software which could be sold to government and surveillance entities). In an indirect process, the individual’s free participation in a system can become a raw material for future monetary gain by the collecting company. The possibilities of data collection can be exciting but also unsettling. When our photos travel instantly from our devices, to the internet, to an algorithm, to a company who may use it and sell it, it is a nearly insurmountable task for any individual to navigate a clear understanding of the intangible ways in which personal data is translated and used. There are currently two interactive installations and one in the works which take abstract, intangible processes, and make them tangible.
The public is left to speculate if this information will be used in constructive ways (e.g., to analyze the cultural biases of museum archives, such as the history of western portrait painting as depicting mostly white persons), or if these information technology companies might be using the images towards undisclosed monetization practices ( e.g. to train facial recognition software which could be sold to government and surveillance entities). In an indirect process, the individual’s free participation in a system can become a raw material for future monetary gain by the collecting company. The possibilities of data collection can be exciting but also unsettling. When our photos travel instantly from our devices, to the internet, to an algorithm, to a company who may use it and sell it, it is a nearly insurmountable task for any individual to navigate a clear understanding of the intangible ways in which personal data is translated and used. There are currently two interactive installations and one in the works which take abstract, intangible processes, and make them tangible.
Installation 2: No Good, Know-How, "Eye Data" 2018
Through these installations, the viewer can witness the point at which their information is harnessed, observe the absurdity and confusion of a convoluted system, and then witness the sale of their contribution to the system, their personal data. As we quickly replace analog processes, simple tools, and human intelligence with digital processes, complex systems, and computer intelligence, are we losing a sense of linear cause and effect?
These installations walk a line between serious linear thought (complex systems of cause and effect) and humorous results (abstract data drawings sold for cheap) to signify how the exponential increase of socially integrated internet technologies in the past twenty years have caused immense social anxieties and feelings of chaos.
The creative, curiosity driven fields of science and art, are steered by the agenda of monetary gain in a capitalist society. The technology industry, as a major driver in the US economic system, has monetary motivations to favor companies over individuals. What of individual privacy is treated as expendable in exchange for free services in order to maintain the system?
These installations walk a line between serious linear thought (complex systems of cause and effect) and humorous results (abstract data drawings sold for cheap) to signify how the exponential increase of socially integrated internet technologies in the past twenty years have caused immense social anxieties and feelings of chaos.
The creative, curiosity driven fields of science and art, are steered by the agenda of monetary gain in a capitalist society. The technology industry, as a major driver in the US economic system, has monetary motivations to favor companies over individuals. What of individual privacy is treated as expendable in exchange for free services in order to maintain the system?