Dissimulation
The metaphor of the ‘black box’ is commonly used to describe systems in which the inputs and outputs are known but the inner mechanisms are not. ‘Artificial intelligence’ technologies are an example of… Continue reading
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Buttons
What do you press when you right- or left-click a mouse? How might you turn something on or off? What are the pads on your computer keyboard called? How did buttons become known as buttons? Discussions about the relationship between the history of textiles and computing tend to focus on the Jacquard Loom and the punch cards that inspired computer programming. The simple button is a neglected part of this history.
The Dissolve
‘Dissolving black boxes’ (interactive installation/moving image) was an Everyday Algorithms micro-commission, supported by The NewBridge Project and curated by Shelly Knotts. The metaphor of the ‘black box’ is commonly used to describe algorithms… Continue reading
Threads of Fate
Wittgenstein used the analogy of a thread to propose that although a series of events may look like a seamless linear progression, when you take a closer look, it is a twisting of… Continue reading
Insulated auditoriums: the struggle to be heard
First published here on Disability Arts Online, also with audio recording for visually impaired audiences. How many of us have had the experience of speaking and yet not being heard? Despite having the… Continue reading
We are not target practice
Enter the crushing architecture of an underground bunker, sealed off from events happening above ground, its only connection with the outside world being via flows of data, radar and computer signal processing. A… Continue reading
Sleeper Cell: children and data
In 1939, sculptor Isamu Noguchi made the first baby monitor commissioned in response to a high-profile kidnapping for which a Glasgow nanny, Betty Gow, was wrongly accused. Tapping into parents’ fears and desires… Continue reading
Da Greenland: ambisonics
An audio-visual work that was initially part of the Hurrian Cult Legacy album and was developed into an ambisonic (surround-sound) experience with the support of Yorkshire Sound Women Network and their ‘Sound Pioneers’… Continue reading
Swallow
Discarded pill packets, red and blue pills made with clay, wood Dimensions: 26cm x 12cm
With Every Fibre: post-media art on the decentralised web
A digital intervention taking place on job listings platforms to re-direct people to the decentralised web and challenge the monopolistic power of (and capitalist social relations encouraged by) Big Tech. The video above… Continue reading
Hurrian Cult Legacy: music
At its core, Hurrian Cult Legacy is about resisting island mentality, both in terms of the individual self and of nationalistic tendencies, and finding alternatives to ‘us’ and ‘them’ narratives that use othering to weaken international solidarity against abuses of power. On the peripheries, meandering improvisations and pulsating dance rhythms branch out into…
Crystalline Unclear: sonified quartz and critiques of machine learning
Crystallography is the process of shining a light through a crystalline material to reveal the qualities of its inner structure by studying its diffraction pattern. By sonifying diffraction data from a piece of… Continue reading
A will, a way?
The pointing finger can indicate direction or an intent to travel from one position to the next. This common motif that displays the location of a computer mouse’s pointer implies the strength of… Continue reading
Cosmic Reach: Chrome extension net art
Cosmic Reach takes the form of a Chrome browser extension that triggers a random image search each time a new tab is opened. This image is pulled from the search term ‘reaching’, generating… Continue reading
[TELE]: culture in quarantine
On 23 March 2020, the UK was put into lockdown as a response to the international COVID-19 pandemic. People were told to stay at home and self-isolate, with strict restrictions on going outside… Continue reading
E-houses without doors: the circular economy and cargoes of e waste
Concealed within their familiar glossy casings is an intricate network of precious metals, rare earth elements, minerals, finite resources, arsenic and mercury. The most positive interpretations of contemporary technological forms imbue them with… Continue reading