CLOG x FEEDSCLOG x FEEDS Of the 4.78 billion people online today, 3.8 billion are active social media users who regularly log onto numerous platforms to post, like, comment, consume, sell, talk shit, creep, and more via algorithmic data infrastructures colloquially known as feeds. Feeds have become a dominant form of communication, completely reshaping our digital commons. Feeds are purported to connect us to one another; they spark friendships, romances, and revolutions, and they keep them alive. On the other hand, feeds are explicitly designed to increase engagement. Not only do feeds capture our attention, they turn it into a product, ultimately generating advertising revenue for third parties. Epitomizing the fleeting moment and eluding nuanced, in-depth discussion, the same algorithms that serve to unite people with similar interests and ideologies also amplify differences, demonstrating an ability to not only connect us, but to drive us apart. Continually optimizing algorithms make it impossible to step into the same feed twice. Whether they function as windows into the world, as mirrors pointed at ourselves, or as something altogether more insidious, feeds wield a powerful influence over individuals, global communities and systems; they have impacted everything from how we shop to how we tell jokes to how we protest injustice to how we vote. The eighteenth issue of CLOG examines the design, behavior, and impact of feeds — and the myriad ways in which we interact with them — during this increasingly entropic time. CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Allen, AJ Artemel, Hannah Berger, Camille Bianchi, Matthew Alan Brubaker, Natan Diacon-Furtado, Ben Duvall, Ziv G. Epstein, Ellena Erskine, Weston Finfer, Max Graenitz, Malena Grigoli, Cassandra Hradil, Marilia Kaisar, Dana Kelly, Andreas Kofler, Gautam Palav, Beatriz Pinta, Curtis Roth, Jack Rusk, Ronny Salerno, Danny Wills, Gian Maria Socci, Rebecca van Beeck, Lucia Tahan, Rachel Serfling, Ryan Skrabalak, Paul Soulellis, Benjamin Strak, Ushma Thakrar, Mike Tully, Emily Weltman EDITORS Jelena Loncar, Kyle May, Nate Patrick, Jacob Reidel, Sam Sidersky ASSISTANT EDITORS Daniel Haidermota, Nicholas Jeffway, Nynika Jhaveri, Shovan Shah, Marissa Volk |
Contents
| 11 | |
| 14 | |
a Communal Feed | 21 |
Feeds Before Feeds | 23 |
the Ethics of UX Design | 25 |
Youre All Caught | 27 |
Served Space | 29 |
Venmo Voyeur | 31 |
Digital Proxemics | 60 |
Feeding Architecture | 63 |
Material Feeds Indeterminate Life | 65 |
Feeds on Screens | 67 |
Cookie Clicker | 69 |
Unmilk Dead Flowers and Honey | 71 |
Invisible Infrastructure | 73 |
Interview With Cole Walliser | 75 |
Big Algorithm and Venmo Voyeurism | 33 |
Time Management | 35 |
Am a Data Monument | 37 |
Stats | 39 |
Network Infrastructures | 40 |
Facebook Story | 43 |
From Social Network to Social Media | 45 |
46 | 46 |
Desperately Scrolling for the Love of My Life | 48 |
The ShortLived Tinder Feed | 51 |
Whats on Your mind? | 53 |
Our Patterns Muncie | 55 |
Dating Apps With Hannah Arendt | 57 |
Bleached Synapses | 59 |
A Year in Tweets | 81 |
Instasham | 83 |
This Feed Came from the Earth | 85 |
Life and Death as Content Feed | 87 |
Agree | 89 |
Metadata | 91 |
The Facebook Remetricator | 93 |
Meet the Ganimals | 95 |
Towards an AntiArchive | 97 |
Windows | 99 |
Feeds Graveyard | 101 |
Contributors | 103 |
Credits and Notes | 105 |