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PostScript^UM #43

Valentina Tanni
The Great Algorithm

The works of US-based artist and programmer Ben Grosser have defined, revealed and defused how software activates the desire for more, as it follows the growth-obsessed corporate culture of Silicon Valley. His most recent project – presented at Aksioma Project Space – is the outcome of a new experiment that aims to generate “Software for Less”: less profit, less data and fewer users. It provides users with new tools to resist these tendencies and keep their agency in the digital era: a time where automated software systems increasingly take over every aspect of human existence, pushing the users to develop new tactics of resistance. In her essay, art historian, curator and lecturer Valentina Tanni discusses many of these spontaneous tactics to cheat the Great Algorithm used by social networks: some of these aim to reach more visibility, some aim to hide, some to invent a new language, some to exploit entropy. However weak and sparse, they represent a genuine and creative form of everyday survival.

EN | 14.8 x 21 cm | 17 pp | COLOUR | soft cover | 2022
ISBN 978-961-7173-14-7 (Printed)
ISBN 978-961-7173-15-4 (Digital)