Interview with SoundNotion TV Patch In

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Interview with SoundNotion TV Patch In

Interview with SoundNotion TV’s Patch In

Last month I sat down with the hosts of the SoundNotion TV show Patch In to talk about the premiere of my new work More Like This. We also talked about a variety of other topics, including Facebook metrics, the NSA, artificial intelligence in art, robotics, older computer music activities, and more. It was a great conversation with some smart composers, and I recommend you work through their back catalog of shows (as I’m doing now).

My interview starts at about 5:30.

posted on 05/05/2014 | tagged: interviews, press

Computers Watching Movies Part of Print Screen 2014 in Tel Aviv

Computers Watching Movies in Print Screen 2014

My work, Computers Watching Movies, will be part of Print Screen 2014 in Tel Aviv on May 1. In its fourth year, Print Screen—Israel’s International Digital Culture Festival—is presenting a curated video art program of international works. The theme of this year’s festival is “Forgetting: an examination of how memories are formed, stored, and sometimes lost in the age of new media.” The festival is being held at the Mediatheque Holon, and the program is curated by Liat Berdugo.

posted on 05/01/2014 | tagged: shows

Solo Show at Webspace

Previously unreleased sketch from Computers Watching Movies at Webspace

I currently have a solo show up at Webspace, curated by Simon Bowerbank. I’m exhibiting Computers Watching Movies, including a previously unreleased sketch from that project that didn’t make it into the final work. This sketch is based on a clip from the “Harvard Bar” scene in Good Will Hunting. The show is up through May 15, and, until then, the unreleased clip can only be seen at Webspace.

posted on 04/30/2014 | tagged: shows

Abstract for Theorizing the Web 2014

Facebook Demetricator Demetricating Likes, Shares, and Comments
Original (top), Demetricated (bottom)

I mentioned previously that I’ll be presenting about Facebook Demetricator on a panel at Theorizing the Web 2014. Here’s the abstract for my talk:

What Do Metrics Want? Facebook Demetricator and the Easing of Prescribed Sociality

The Facebook interface is filled with numbers that count users’ friends, comments, and “likes.” By combining theories of agency in artworks and images with a software studies analysis of quantifications in the Facebook interface, this paper examines how these metrics prescribe sociality within the site’s online social network. That prescription starts with the transformation of the human need for personal worth, within the confines of capitalism, into an insatiable “desire for more.” Audit culture and business ontology inculturate a reliance on quantification to evaluate whether that desire has been fulfilled. These conditions compel Facebook’s users to reimagine both self and friendship in quantitative terms, and situates them within a graphopticon, a self-induced audit of metricated social performance where the many watch the many. The theoretical analyses presented are further considered and examined in practice using the author’s artistic software, Facebook Demetricator. In use by thousands worldwide since late 2012, this software removes all metrics from the Facebook interface, inviting the site’s users to try the system without the numbers and to see how that removal changes their experience. Feedback from users of Facebook Demetricator illuminates how metrics activate the “desire for more,” driving users to want more “likes,” more comments, and more friends. Further, the metrics lead users to craft self-imposed rules around the numbers that guide them on how, when, and with whom to interact. Facebook Demetricator, through its removal of the metrics, both reveals and eases these patterns of prescribed sociality, enabling a network society less dependent on quantification.

posted on 04/11/2014 | tagged: talks, writing

Presenting at Theorizing the Web 2014

I’ll be presenting and showing at Theorizing the Web 2014 in Brooklyn, NY

I’m happy to share that I’ll be giving a panel presentation at Theorizing the Web 2014 in Brooklyn, NY this April. The title of my paper is “What Do Metrics Want? Facebook Demetricator and the Easing of Prescribed Sociality.” Theorizing the Web is an interdisciplinary annual conference that “brings together scholars, journalists, activists, and commentators to ask big questions about the interrelationships between the Web and society.” It’s a great group of people, and I’m very much looking forward to meeting a number of them in person.

The panel I’m on is titled “Remix: Refashioning the Web Through Art” and is being held at 10am on 26 April. In addition to the talk, I’ll also be presenting Facebook Demetricator as part of a gallery component of the conference. More on this soon.

posted on 03/31/2014 | tagged: shows, talks

Facebook Demetricator in The New Yorker

Facebook Demetricator in the New Yorker

My work Facebook Demetricator was mentioned in an article in the February 10, 2014 issue of The New Yorker. The article is titled Man and Machine: Playing games on the Internet by Susan Orlean (full text is behind their paywall, but you can read a bit of it).

posted on 03/26/2014 | tagged: press

Finalist for the Arte Laguna Prize in Virtual and Digital Art

I’ve been named a finalist for Arte Laguna Prize in Virtual and Digital Art

I’m very happy to share that I’ve been named a finalist for the Arte Laguna Prize in Virtual and Digital Art! After two rounds of judging, I’m one of eight still left on the list in the category. I entered two works, ScareMail and Facebook Demetricator, and both were named on the announcement. As a result, I’ll be exhibiting both works during the Arte Laguna Finalist Exhibition being held at the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, Italy. I also have a shot at the 7k euro prize. The show opens on 23 March and is up through 6 April. Entrance is free and the venue is open from 10a to 6p.

posted on 03/10/2014 | tagged: awards, shows

ScareMail Reviewed in Neural

My work ScareMail, a browser extension that makes email “scary” in order to disrupt NSA surveillance, was reviewed in the 20th anniversary issue of Neural. From the review, written by Aurelio Cianciotta:

The project aims to uncover defects in surveillance based on analysis of keywords wide-ranging, such as those found in the Black Book of the NSA. Many terms that could hypothetically indicate a message exchange between terrorists are extremely common and de facto make everyone subject to monitoring. ScareMail responds to this attack on the confidentiality of personal information by proposing a model of privacy diametrically opposed to the common concept: privacy that emerges from the multiplication of words in plain sight rather than from encryption and subterfuge.

Another project of mine, Facebook Demetricator, was previously reviewed in Neural as well.

posted on 03/10/2014 | tagged: press, reviews

Animated GIFs of Computers Watching Movies by Prosthetic Knowledge

Animated GIF of my Computers Watching Movies (The Matrix) by Prosthetic Knowledge

Animated GIF of my Computers Watching Movies (2001: A Space Odyssey) by Prosthetic Knowledge

I’ve been meaning to post these great animated GIFs of my work Computers Watching Movies made by Prosthetic Knowledge for a post he did about the project last January. If you don’t already follow Prosthetic Knowledge, you should. He’s often the first to find and post about interesting works, is considered an essential blog to follow by Wired, and he also writes for Rhizome.

posted on 03/10/2014 | tagged: press

Upcoming Exhibitions in New York, Milwaukee, Venice

ScareMail and Facebook Demetricator will be part of the Arte Laguna Finalist Exhibition in Venice, Italy

My 2014 exhibition and presentation calendar is already shaping up to be a busy one.

Both Facebook Demetricator and ScareMail will be part of the Arte Laguna Prize Finalists Exhibition in Venice, Italy. My category, Virtual and Digital Art, will be on view at the Telecom Italia Future Centre from 23 March to 6 April. Entrance is free and the venue is open from 10a to 6p.

Facebook Demetricator will be on display in the gallery component of Theorizing the Web. The venue is Windmill Studios in Brooklyn, and the dates are 25-26 April. I’m also presenting about Demetricator as part of the conference panel sessions. [link]

ScareMail is currently on view in Buffalo as part of Yoko Ono Fan Club, at the University at Buffalo Art Gallery, through 29 March. Next up for ScareMail is Exuberant Politics, put on by the University of Iowa, and held at Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids from 6 Mar to 1 Apr.

The Electronic Literature Association conference (ELO2014) at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, includes a media art show component (separately refereed). ScareMail will be part of that show, and I’m also presenting about ScareMail and algorithmic text generation as an artistic strategy on a conference panel. [link]

I have a solo show at the newly created Web-Space, curated by Simon Bowerbank out of New Zealand. This show, focused on Computers Watching Movies, will include a never before released sketch clip from that work. This show will run during the month of April.

Finally, I neglected to mention here that Computers Watching Movies was part of the recently concluded COLLISION20 at the Boston Cyberarts Gallery. It was great to work with curator Will Tremblay.

And an extra: there’s another show in the planning stages that I’m very excited about! Check back (or subscribe to my feed) to keep up to date.

posted on 03/05/2014 | tagged: shows

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