Ethics, Google and Downerism
Ethics, Google and Downerism
Foreword: For any newcomers, this is my monthly newsletter in which I will hopefully give an insight into my practice, projects and inspirations.
Been a busy month, as I juggled 3 very different but exciting projects and this newsletter I just want to tell you a little about each one, from most serious to most fun.
Number one on the list is a collaboration I’m doing with the designer Jeremiasz Rzenno, who made one of my fav research projects last year Unguilty Pleasures, a space to share and document micro-disobediences at work. Together we have started working on an open-ended project exploring the role of designer’s in enabling some of the worst aspects of capitalism. So far we have been hosting round table discussions with other designer’s to gather opinions and experiences on this topic. Up to now, the conversations for me seems to boil down to two key points of conflict. Is it better to take ethically dubious design work in order to make changes from the inside, or to abstain and throw stones from the outside? Secondly, is it a position of privilege or necessity to abstain from doing such ethically dubious design work? How we will move from here I am not sure yet, but if you would like to join a discussion, let me know and I’ll send you the deets.
Next on my list is a project I am participating in called CODE NL-D, where around 20 of us are exploring artistic lead projects that attempt to make political change around technology and the internet. My group in this is currently exploring the current omnipresence and potential omnipotence of Google online. Not just the search engine but the Google services behind a lot of popular websites. Did you know that Google’s font solution is used on 41% of the 10,000 most popular sites or their Analytics is used on 70% of those same websites? Ironically, yesterday I heard Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, telling the BBC that the free and open internet is under threat. Anyway, have no fear about this Google Monopoly, our group is currently working on creating our own De-Googled version of the world wide web.
Lastly, I have reprised my exploration into Ai generated words with help from the OpenAI’s terrifying tool, GPT-3. I can’t stress this enough, this tool is scarily amazing 50% of the time and comfortingly sh*t the other 50%. To train the AI, I have been giving it a random selection of words from the wonderful Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and then selecting the best words generated. If you would like to see the outputs so far, check out this questionnaire but I will leave you with two of my favourite AI generated words so far:
hallguest n.
the awkward and unexpected houseguest who arrives unannounced, stays much longer than anticipated, and overstays their welcome.
downerism n.
sadness that doesn’t quite make it to the surface, a feeling of vague melancholy that lingers somewhere between your thoughts and your heartbeat, a shadow of loss that never quite takes shape but still leaves your heart feeling heavier than it should, a blue that feels like it should be a shade of green.
Anyway, hope those updates was vaguely interesting and excited to share some of the results of those projects soon.
That’s all from me, hope you’ve enjoyed and have a great month.
Fred
My Website: https://www.fredwordie.com
My Book: https://www.bigdatagirl.com
My VC: https://ventually.xyz