Algorithm Series: Artist Statement

The Algorithm Series explores themes of human interaction with technology and the complexities of engaging with virtual content that is continuously curated by mathematical forces. Every day we input intimate details of ourselves into these calculations, sharing what we like, what we’re afraid of, what we don’t understand and what we secretly desire. Even if we don’t explicitly articulate these emotions, our taps, gestures and hesitations feed the algorithm for us. The spaces between our decisions and actions build such an uncanny profile of who we are that we are then surprised by how much we begin to recognize ourselves in what is shared back. 

The Algorithm poems draw on the tiny moments of recognition we experience every day as we both build and react to the pattern of who we are as digital beings. At times, we may welcome this recognition and even be relieved by it (Yes, that is exactly what I was looking for!). At times, we may be horrified by what is curated into our view (How does an algorithm know I have small breasts?). As we engage, what is pushed into or held away from our view will shape us and our actions. We are in constant conversation with these algorithmic forces, which are in turn the mathematical abstractions of the dreams, desires, judgments, assumptions, biases and fears they are designed to outsmart.

Each Algorithm poem traces the mathematical circle back to its origin: our own consciousness (and unconscious) and the ways through which we seek to understand ourselves. The poems stretch beyond written language, pulling in hand-drawn lines, images, and patterns, to help represent what is unspeakable in this dialogue. If pure, mathematical abstraction leads back to the tissue of the body, to our hopes and hungers, our angers and our anxieties, what can we learn about ourselves through our own patterns? And in learning about ourselves, what do we then feed back into this collective tabulation of our humanity?