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 • Part of the PhD-Workshop «Imagination as a Site of Struggle»

Recent technological advancements have led to the exponential growth of machine learning software. The vast data required for these algorithms has turned human attention into a commodity. Browsers, as key tools for data production, have become sites where user behavior is manipulated through scrolling and clicking traps (Seaver 2019). Despite the opaque nature of corporate algorithms on social media platforms, browsers still provide access to client-side source code via built-in debugging tools, a feature well-known to web designers. These tools, from network analysis to variable logging, enable critical debuggers to intercept and analyze data at various stages, allowing a shift from error correction to multi-scale forensic analysis. This proposal wants to engage in the critical annotation of de-obfuscated code, to analyze how interaction between users and interfaces produces data-points. The de-ofuscation will show the connections between concepts of immaterial (free) labour (Terranova 2000, Lazzarato 1996), and Locke's Labour Theory of Property (Arneil 1994) and marixsts concepts of labour and surplus-labour (Fuchs 2014).

Biography

Yann Martins is a coder and artist currently working at the IXDM. He is developing software for research projects and also working on his own Phd dissertation on counter data practices, between luddite approaches and play.