algorithmic anxiety
in preparation for the RADAR event
algorithmic anxiety
Recently I learned about Lacan’s concept of jouissance, which I’ve come to understand as pleasure that becomes so intense it’s hard to distinguish from pain. I’m fairly certain this describes the high of answering anxiety’s biggest questions: binging on information, hoarding social validation, buying stuff, so much stuff, crafting five-year plans.... See more
... See moreIn my conversations with curators, I found a tone of caring and caretaking that is missing entirely from massive digital platforms, which treat all culture like content to be funnelled indiscriminately at high volume and which encourages consumers to stay constantly on the surface…
We turn to art to seek connection, yet algorithmic feeds give us
What we gain with algorithmic feeds in terms of availability-having instant access to a broad range of material to be scanned at will —we lose in connoisseurship, which requires depth and intention. It's ultimately a form of deep appreciation, for what the artist has done as well as the capacities of our own tastes.
— Filterworld, pg. 238
... See moreShould the human fashion editor tell you what to like or should it be the algorithmic machine, in the form of the Amazon bookstore, Spotify feed, or Netflix home page? That is the central dilemma of culture in Filterworld.
The former option is mercurial and driven by elite gatekeepers, a powerful group built up over a century of modern cultural
When reviewing the data — as always, we should ask, “What are its biases?” This spawns questions: Does a platform and algorithm drive preference, or does preference drive the algorithm? Further, are creators making what they want, or what the platform rewards? And even further, do some clicks matter more in this creation-consumption flywheel?
If I believe my inner world is an “ecology” and social media’s algorithms are “incursions” and “extractive”—then I have to think hard about my own part in sustaining the fragile space of my attention, a place I’ve been cultivating with great care all these years.
Lia Purpura Published • The Ecology of Attention
After a while, there is a certain tedium to TikTok. The feast becomes overwhelming. Our taste buds dull. Our eyes dry. TikTok understands that once you start scrolling, it is so very hard to stop.
The New Pornographers — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
The culture that thrives in Filterworld tends to be accessible, replicable, participatory, and ambient. It can be shared across wide audiences and retain its meaning across different groups, who tweak it slightly to their own ends. (In Filterworld, everything must be a meme, like a remixable joke or image optimized to travel across the Internet.)
So much of culture now is about soliciting attention by any means necessary, and the attention is the goal and the measure of success. The thing itself is secondary. — KC