I started this project with two concepts in mind. The first was looking at fashion photographer Terry Richardson and trying to bring to light his inappropriate actions. He is known for sexually harassing the models he works with. My original idea for the Twitter bot was to retweet anything he tweeted and post it to my page with a link to an image that I created.The image is shown below:

Many of these sorts of images are easily found online once googling his name. I just manipulated it and put a filter on it so it wasn’t so vulgar (also it still is). I set this Twitter bot up and ran into a few issues. First, it was posting to my personal twitter account rather than the one I set up, which was an easy fix. Second, the image was somewhat hidden within the tweet. The link to his photograph that he put in the tweet was more so visible than mine, and it looked as if I had just retweeted his tweet with no other fixes. Here is a screen shot of his post without my link:

Unfortunately I got frustrated and deleted the posts before I got to document them which I realize would have been helpful now. My link was smaller and unnoticeable, therefore I figured more people would have clicked on the first link they saw, which was his photo and not my manipulated one. I would’ve liked if my image showed up directly along with his post, but I realize Twitter does not work like that.

For the programming aspect, I used IFTTT in order to get this up and running which was convenient and easy. My recipe looked like this:

Although this was a great attempt, I wanted to try something else and see where it got me.

This is when I turned to my other idea, about Oblique Strategies. What I was inspired by was text and language and the exercises in which we manipulated a source text to get a completely different result. For instance, we took poems and reversed the words or took out every other. I think that really fascinating things happen when language is experimented with and I wanted to explore this further. What really interests me is how words lose or change meaning once placed in a different order or repeated. I wanted to work with this and see how I can manipulate language and break it apart.

After looking through the archive of Oblique Strategies on Twitter, some of these strategies even motivated me to do this exercise by what they were saying.

I thought to myself, yes they do need changing. And that’s why I wanted to create this Twitter bot. Or things like this:

This Twitter bot was going to be all about emphasizing the flaws and removing specifics. Along with this, I realized that I enjoyed the Oblique Strategies more when they were random words put together. For example:

For some reason, that inspires me a lot more than actual sentences or questions. This is when I decided that I wanted to create a Twitter bot that takes random words from the Oblique Strategies tweets and creates new phrases and orders. I used a Python library called TextBlob in order to do this. What it does is provide an API to pick apart tasks dealing with language, “part-of-speech tagging, noun phrase extraction, sentiment analysis, classification, translation, and more.” I wrote a function in the code to take the random text and generate something new. I used Sublime Text in order to do this, typed the Consumer Keys, Access Keys and then also used Tweepy to assist which allows communication to Twitter.

TextBlob <–Website Here

Here is part of the code.

This generates new text from the existing Oblique Strategies.

This is the Twitter page:

And here are some examples of what it has generated so far:

Oblique Oblique <– Twitter Bot Link

Right now it is just running off of my computer but ideally I would have liked to put it on a server so that it is automatic and runs more often. I have been experimenting with Heroku multiple times but it is still causing issues with the git command, as we figured out it has something to do with my operating system.

Although the random effect is so random that it repeats a lot of the same words so nothing is clearly legible. Originally I didn’t like that it was hard to understand but now I like that it is so “bot” like because it goes with my goal of breaking apart language. I feel that this is more of a work in progress than a finished piece, but I feel that I am onto something that could eventually work well.

I really enjoyed this project for many reasons. It is unlike anything I have studied in my career as a student or created during my life as an artist.

For this project, we initially started talking about what themes we wanted to cover. We agreed upon privacy, and something to do with gender norms. We ultimately wanted our audience to question the motives of the piece and think about what we might be saying with the choices we made. We brainstormed topics such as putting information online and why we are so willing to give up our personal information to a computer. Why are we hesitant about real people coming up to us and asking about our personal information but we freely type in these words to a machine? What dangers and precautions do we take with the different sources, whether technological or human? As a group, we were fascinated with these ideas and were hoping to explore them further in our research.

Gender issues and breaching were the topics I was more interested in for this project.  I was fascinated with the catcalling experiment from earlier in the semester and wanted to keep these themes present in whatever we created. In this sense, I think our project covers this topic by questioning who would wear our prosthetic. Do men really cry? Would this prosthetic work at all for people who have a hard time crying? By not having a clear answer to these questions, it brings the audience into our thought process and makes them ponder these issues on their own.

Our project reminded me a lot of other projects and artists we talked about during this class.

Lauren McCarthy was a huge inspiration for our group, as she created a lot of pieces that make people ask questions about social interactions. Her Happiness Hat explores the issues of how our actions change the way other people act around us. Your mood ultimately affects others and her way of speaking about this was interesting. I felt that it related to our work in the sense of it being a wearable prosthetic, but also that it had to do with mood and how we change our mood based on where we are, and who we are with.

McCarthy’s piece titled Crowdpilot also treads on the same water as ours in the sense that she’s giving the control to someone other than herself, or the user whoever that might be. For example, in our scenario, putting the hat and glasses on sends a message to a friend in your contact list on your phone. What happens next then depends on the actions of the friend, but the user is still giving that power to someone else. McCarthy’s piece is similar in that she is asking the Internet for her next ‘move’ whether she is on a date, with family, or in any awkward social situation. She is relying on someone else to help her with the situation at hand.

Kelly Dobson’s Scream Body has a similar aesthetic of the wearable. Both deal with this concept of “hiding” emotions and feelings. In order to use the notiCRY wearable, you have to shield your eyes/ face/ head. This is where the theme of privacy comes into play. Where do people typically cry in public, if any? Do people cry in public areas? Why do we like to hide our emotions? Why do we feel uncomfortable around other people when we are upset? Screambody deals with this issue by having the user scream into the device. Why do we feel that we cannot scream on the top of our lungs in public spaces? Is it out of respect for others or a personal choice of comfort? All of these questions bring up the same ideas

For the video component of notiCRY, we were greatly inspired by Miranda July and her piece “Somebody.” I enjoyed the promo video and how it has a playful tone to it. We knew we wanted to do the same with ours. I personally like projects when I don’t know exactly whether or not they are “real” or “usable.” I think that is what makes them successful and more interesting when I have to ask if they exist in real life because they tread on this unknown and strange line of real and dream like. I feel as if people could ask the same about our prototype.

Here is our promo video:

[vimeo 125712504 w=500 h=281]

This project also reminds me of the film Her by Spike Jonze in the sense that the machines are “taking control” of the humans. There is something powerful about these instances in which the machines have the power and we as humans are actually giving them that power. The main character knows he is talking to a computer but he still gives the power to the machine by treating it like a human. He starts to get involved emotionally. While our piece is not about becoming attached to the actual device, when the user puts the wearable on, they give the power to the machine because it is automatically detecting and alerting a friend without the user’s consent.

To further speak about attachment, questions that arise for me are, what happens when the owner of the wearable starts to put the hat on all the time and depends on the machine to talk to their friends for them? When does the line get crossed from assistance and attachment? This could be discussed in relation to Sherry Turkle’s  book Alone Together. While I think overall the whole book explains these concepts, the section we read for class was important in discussing attachment and the reasons that we depend on technological devices so much. One of our questions for our piece was how much should we involve our devices with our emotions?

Our first step in actually executing the project involved us testing the sensor and trying to figure out how we could get the alert to work by the sensors being placed in salt water. To do this we used the Arduino, 2 wire sensors and a blinking LED so we would know if what we were doing was working. First we tried with plain water and then we realized it wasn’t reacting so we added salt. This thankfully worked so we started working on phase 2 which was getting the device to work with a cell phone. For this, we used “Twilio” which is an API library that is able to communicate between the Arduino and a cell phone. What was exciting for us was that it wasn’t just necessarily a prototype but that we actually got the technological aspect to work. The one thing that is necessary for it to work without being plugged into a computer is a wireless device that was out of our budget. With this, our prosthetic could be used in real life!

While it started as a group effort, we slowly gained individual roles in the process. We worked through our thought process of how we wanted the video to look. We then worked mainly with filming the video for our prosthetic, directing the shots as well as actually filming some of the scenes. Alissa and I both took turns doing this. Alissa and I also worked on putting the actual prosthetic together, (hat and glasses and water sensors). We sewed the pieces together and then wanted to attach the Arduino to the hat. Alissa and I were mainly in charge of the aesthetic components of the project while Andrew worked with the backbone programming. We all put our own input into each process so it was truly a collaborative piece. I am happy with the way our project turned out and I learned a lot along the way, not only of exploring these topics of dependency on digital devices, but also technological aspects of programming which will help me to continue on in this field.

The Anxieties of Big Data, Kate Crawford

Art, Activism, and CCTV

The Anxieties of Big Data by Kate Crawford discusses the ways in which big data collection affect users on an every day social context.  In recent years, the public has started to become more aware of their thinning privacy and increasing surveillance by the United States government. Much of this surveillance has been defended as being in place for the safety of the general public, especially in a post September 11th with the fear of terrorism being a main threat.  In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) came forward leaking documents to the media stating that would show the United States government was performing illegal and unethical surveillance on other countries and it’s own citizens.

The Anxieties of Big Data discusses the type of society that is evolving as a result of big data collection.

Interestingly, Crawford mentions that the reality of big data is surveillant anxiety.  She defines this term as “the fear that all the data we are shedding every day is too revealing of our intimate selves, but may also misrepresent us.”

Crawford also references Plan C’s manifesto, “We Are All Very Anxious”, to address a significant problem society faces today, arguing that anxiety is the affect of our current structure of capitalism that is the causation of political apathy, insecurity, and social segregation.

Crawford also argues that anxiety comes in two places – the anxiety of the surveilled and the anxiety of the surveillers.  This is a crucial catch 22 in the surveillance divide.  The general public is told their safety is at risk which enables the surveillance, but the surveillers become increasingly skeptical of the public.  Then, as Crawford describes, the actions of those exercising control of data collection are hidden by government documents that the public does not have access to.  As their actions remain hidden, the public becomes defenseless as to what is being done with their information and remains blind to any real intentions.

Many people have accepted data collection as an increasing part of every day life.  The question that has been apparent however, especially since Snowdens leak of government documents, is how much this data collection really benefits the public.  Crawford describes the “current mythology” of big data as being more data = more accuracy, more truth.  Many argue however that this just isn’t true, and correlation doesn’t imply causation.  Many worry, understandably so, that big data leaves too large a chance of misunderstanding.

Crawford expands her argument to everyday trends and fashion.  She uses the current style of “Normcore” as an explanation of consumer anxiety and being a reaction to surveillance.  Normcore addresses how blending in was once a tactic used by protestors (ex. Occupy Wallstreet) to avoid police detection and surveillance.  As big data collection increases however, blending in is now more important than ever, and everyone must partake.

Art, Activism, and CCTV

Dead Drops- Adam Barthol – art project that involves exchanging files through USB devices in public places

“Creativity generates tactics. Art can be a weapon. It is valuable enough to society that forces of power have worked to subvert it.”

System Azure- Jill Magid –

What’s interesting to point out here is the way the perception changes when someone approaches a situation as an artist versus other jobs titled “professional.”

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think your privacy is a fair trade off for the feeling of safety?

2. Do you think someones online data is an accurate representation of them as a person? Could they be misconstrued?

3. Do you think every day users have any control over the future of big data collection?

4. In what ways do you think data collection has benefitted your safety and/or general well being and happiness?  In what ways has it inhibited?

5. What anxieties do you think surveillers experience versus the anxieties that those being surveilled?

6. Why do you think the police rejected her proposal after finding out she was an artist? What is the power in being an artist in these situation

I have a few ideas for my Twitter bot project. I am not set on just one and want to research more to see which one makes more sense to try and achieve.

The first is an anagram bot. I really enjoy anagrams for the reason that I already think language and text manipulation are very interesting. I like the sort of effect in which the meaning changes and becomes less human like, or dreamy and strange. Going off these ideas, I was thinking I could create a bot that takes the tweets from Oblique Strategies and make new strategies. They could either be direct messaged to Obli Strats followers or just a main twitter account holding the new phrases. I think there would have to be some sort of rule or constraint to follow in order to be successful and consistent.

The other idea that was floating around has to do with Terry Richardson the fashion photographer and predator. Either every time someone hashtags #TerryRichardson the bot would reply to that person saying he is a sexual predator or link to articles of models being harassed. I like the idea of raising awareness of this issue through Twitter and hitting a main fan base.

I am still unsure of exactly how these bots would work technically, but I like the ideas of both and want to narrow the idea down within the next couple days.

I used one of my favorite poems Slowdance by Matthew Dickman.

I thought this exercise was really amazing to see how it can transform text in an interesting way and how it changes language.  Really liked this exercise.

First, I used the every other example code.Here was the result:

gungho:SSHW emilylocke$ node everyother.js text.txt

More putting man the

more a Year’s of and

we the to

with exquisite A dance the and room at end the while person love gone bring car

because begun rain would their

if part us wet. slow

to the home, knock out the Two

rocking and like buoy. extravagant. little An bottle whiskey. a like Your resting his your moving his

Your along spine. hips like cotton

and begin think how the in sky dead. my

is to body dance. Unchained

Stairway Heaven, slow All life made Small cruel. made plans. never I my I my

The dance care. all like

before turn Like held the

of brother. slow of

Two in middle the When dance him, of great he absolutely

and he to me I on foot we both

I that of will first the will

The dance what’s come the dance insomnia across floor bath

When woman sleeping

stands in bathroom, her the dance ritual being

into sink. is one save

because is need be

I’ve you. loved I’ve

the yard. the wearing shear dress in million

comes me an chandelier come life, take hand mine. spin out bring in. is almond

in dark dance. is we be right Scrapping joy. haiku honey. orange orangutang dance.

Then I tried reversing: 

gungho:SSHW emilylocke$ node reverse.js text.txt

.ecnad wols gnatugnaro dna egnaro ehT .yenoh dna ukiah ehT .yoj rof

gnipparcS .won thgir gniod eb dluohs ew tahw si tI

.ecnad wols krad eht ni

evorg dnomla eht si sihT .ni reh gnirb dna

tuo reh nips I .enim ni dnah reh ekat I

,efil ot emoc ylneddus reilednahc dexes-revo na ekil em drawot semoc

sdaeb noillim a ni derevoc

sserd etihw raehs a gniraew regnarts eht nehW .dray tnorf eht

dewom ev’I .uoy devol ev’I .uoy truh ev’I

.devas eb ot deen on si ereht esuaceb

su evas ot eno on si erehT .knis eht otni

tips gnieb si lautir fo ecnad wols eht ,hteet reh gnihsurb

,moorhtab eht ni dekan sdnats

htiw gnipeels m’I namow eht nehW

.retaw htab ekil roolf eht ssorca gniruop

ainmosni fo ecnad wols eht dna

emoc ot s’tahw fo ecnad wols ehT

.reffus lliw rehto eht dna tsrif eid lliw su fo eno taht wonk I

,gnidael htob era ew esuaceb toof sih no pets I ro

em pid ot snrut eh nehw dna

,namuh yletulosba si eh ,sevol taerg ym fo eno

,mih htiw ecnad I nehW .moor eht fo elddim eht ni nem owT

.sgnilbis fo ecnad wols ehT .rehtorb ym fo

smra eht ni dleh gnieb ekiL .ruof nrut yeht erofeb

nerdlihc ekil ssendnik lla s’tI .erac t’nseod ecnad wols ehT

.eniw ym knard I .doof ym eta I .devirra reven I

.snalp ym edam I .leurc dna

llamS .sekatsim edam ev’I

efil ym llA .ecnad wols droc-rewop ,nevaeH ot yawriatS

,ydoleM deniahcnU ehT .ecnad wols ydob ruoy ot gniklat si

ydob ym ehT .daed era

yks eht ni srats eht lla woh tuoba kniht ot nigeb uoy dna

nikpan nottoc a ekil gnidlofnu

spih reH .enips reh gnola sdnah ruoY

.kcen sih pu gnivom htaerb ruoy ,redluohs sih no

gnitser daeh ruoY .gnitaehc ekil elttil a s’tI

.yeksihw fo elttob ytpme nA .cisum elttil A

.tnagavartxe gnihtoN .youb a ekil htrof dna kcab gnikcor

elpoep owT .krap eht fo tuo ti kconk ot ,emoh gnineve eht gnirb ot

ecnad wols A .tew tog su fo trap yna fi

traeh rieht kaerb dluow dna niar ot nugeb s’ti esuaceb

dnuora rac eht gnirb ot

enog sah evol ew nosrep eht elihw ,ytrap eht fo

dne eht ta ,elbat moor gninnid dna hcuoc eht neewteb

ecnad wols A .sregnarts etisiuqxe yllaer htiw

ecnad ot ytinutroppo eht deen ew

,agoy dna trugoy fo noituloser s’raeY weN a naht erom

,noom eht no nam rehtona gnittup naht eroM

Here is Flesch:

gungho:SSHW emilylocke$ node flesch.js text.txt

Total Syllables: 534

Total Words    : 418

Total Sentences: 39

Flesch Index   : 87.87877008955958

All of the articles this week were eye opening to think about in the sense of how technology directly influences the future we create for ourselves. I’ve read a lot of articles on the dystopic futures that could very well become a reality. The article by Sara Watson about a “data driven future” was completely frightening. Everything seemed to be programmed and connected with completely detailed information about the narrator, sometimes without her knowledge or consent. I did not like the fact that every device was somehow connected with each other and each played off of what the other one “knew,” or “assumed.” In this sense, technology has gone too far, and not in a positive or useful direction. Not allowing her to take the beer because every other device has concluded that she is pregnant just leaves the machine in control. It should not be able to decide if you would like a drink for you, and lock the drawer. Reading this article frustrated me, but also made me think about the advancement of technology in another way. This brings me to discuss “The Quantified Spouse Movement” by Bianca Bosker. In this essay she discusses how partners can improve their relationships by sharing personal data, as detailed as every meal they have eaten.

“If I see Lisa get a sleep score of 48 [a low score implying a poor night’s sleep], I’ll think, ‘I’ll walk on eggshells around you today because a 48 means you could possibly be a little volatile,’” explained Joe, who is the executive director of Health Extension.”

This sat with me the wrong way. Would he really avoid her simply because she might’ve tossed and turned a little during her slumber? I don’t think I would feel comfortable with this sort of information being in my partner’s hands, no matter how long I have dated them or even been married to them. While I see how some of these themes have created a “better” relationship for some couples, I think the overarching idea of this type of information being available is not right, and I do not agree that this type of advancement is using technology in an effective way. This article made me sincerely uncomfortable and I hope to never partake in this type of ordeal at any point in my life.

The essay about the Disney MagicBands treading along the same themes as privacy was also fascinating. I thought it was interesting that these bands had the capabilities of tracking customer’s possible opinions of the Disney corporation based on where they were at specific times. I think it is an innovative marketing strategy to gain as much profit as possible and keep customers as happy as they can while being at Disney resorts. However, it makes me wonder what benefits the consumer gets by wearing and using these bands. We can clearly see how Disney benefits. But is enough being given to the park goer in exchange for Disney knowing their every step?

I realized a couple minutes into a video that my friend was showing me that we were watching it on YouTube. Oops.

~~

The Google Diet was very hard for me because I am dependent on Google as a search engine. I realize that there are multiple search engines available, but I have always been an avid user of the G. What I thought was interesting was that I did not go on Youtube as much as I thought I did. I now use Spotify which is easier and more convenient for me. I also use Gmail for random email friends, which was hard to stop using, even for a week.

I liked this exercise because it made me think more about Google in the sense that I was unaware of how many companies they own. It was fascinating to read the list and be stunned every time I read a familiar name.

Below are the images from creating the recipe as well as the results: 

“Oblique strategies is a set of cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt used to break deadlocks in creative situations. Each card contains a (sometimes cryptic) remark that can help you resolve a creative dilemma.”

http://www.oblicard.com

Below is the interview with my friend, Andy P:

What social media networks do you use?

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Soundcloud if you consider that a social network

What would you say are your top three interests or hobbies?

Making music, listening to music, fashion, design, photography

How do you feel about these specified networks? Which one works best for personal relationships? Which ones work best for your interests?

Facebook is one of my favorites in regards to my relationships because I can message with close friends. I also love twitter but it is seems less intimate. Soundcloud helps to cultivate my musical progress and interest.

What are your issues with social networking and the apps that are available? 

I have been having trouble getting inspired lately. I’m having trouble thinking outside the box with my creative flow for music with all of these apps for different purposes. There is too much going on with my phone and it gets overwhelming.

How often do you check your phone?

All the time. It is hard to say how many times I check it.

My recipe takes tweets from an “Oblique Strategies” account and sends the tweets to your phone in notifications. This way, it will come at random times (whenever the account tweets a strategy) and will help to eliminate creative blocks or inspire at any time in the day.

Knowing that my interviewee is a creative individual and also uses his his phone throughout the day, I decided this recipe would work quite well for him.

I originally set this up just for my friend because he felt like he was having creative blocks with his music, but this could apply to anyone who needs a little inspiration sent to them. I found that I really enjoy having this set up and I am a big fan of Oblique Strategies, so it is useful for me.

I was worried about the issue of my friend having to download the IFTTT app in order to use my recipe but he didn’t mind. However, I think that it might bother some users and have them be less willing to use it if it requires another app to be downloaded.

For this tech-mediated breaching assignment, I chose to experiment with a breach that was listed under one of the inspirational ideas. In this breach, I texted my mother an absurd amount of times over the course of one day until I felt like she started to get annoyed. We usually speak a couple times a day, so the amount that I ended up speaking to her grew rapidly. I wanted to try and break the social norm of texting etiquette.

Below are screenshots of our conversation:

. 

The initial reactions I was getting were not quite what I expected. She answered nicely to all of my questions and did not seem to get annoyed or question my responses. It is very unlikely that I text her as much as I did this day, but she did not seem to mind. (Maybe she just enjoyed talking to me??)

Eventually, she thought something might be wrong and asked if everything was okay because she could not keep up with all of the texts. If I were to do this experiment again, I would message someone who I do not know that well, and I think the results would be drastically different because there would be more of a level of expectation.

After looking back at this breach, I do not know if I consider it to necessarily represent an artistic practice like the webcam piece done by Addie Wagenknecht does. I would like to experiment again with this assignment and see what I come up with that could be more creative.