Haunted by Algorithms

www.hauntedbyalgorithms.net

Conception: Jeff Guess and Gwenola Wagon
Programming: Jeff Guess
Graphic Design: Jérôme Saint Loubert-Bié
Automated publication (fall 2018): Loic Horellou
Iconography: Lou-Maria Le Brusq

Haunted by Algorithms is the second part of the project Media Mediums and begins with the radical de-centering of cybernetics, detailing the gradual emergence of a continuum where everything is in communication with everything. This unlimited conversation is rooted in the computer's quintessential function of reading and writing data, automating these once human activities, and by doing so, fostering an imaginary of machinic intelligence. But the cerebral promise of this general algorithmisation, as in a feedback loop, casts a new light on the cognitive potential of a large spectrum of formerly behaviorist non-human actors (animals, minerals, plants, fantoms, viruses, etc.) foreshadowing speculative assemblages and information exchanges on multiple planes and scales.

This dialogic free-for-all is at the heart of the Haunted by Algorithms web platform, conceived of as a large, real-time 10000 x 8000 pixel² environment where one can scroll and slide from project to project within the same continuous space without leaving or refreshing the page. While reading the 25 commissioned texts and projects by artists, historians and philosophers that make up the space, one's reading is accompanied by automatic writings, a host of bots which analyse the text, make suggestions, provide references, modify the text, tweet, and so on.

With contributions by: Jean-Louis Boissier, Angélique Buisson, Pierre Cassou-Noguès, Antoine Chapon and Nicolas Gourault, Yves Citton and Anthony Masure, Stéphane Degoutin, Vinciane Despret and Clémence Seurat, Frédéric Dumond, Emmanuel Guez, Jeff Guess and Gwenola Wagon, Martin Howse, Jean-Noël Lafargue, Lou Maria Le Brusq, Marie Lechner, Nicolas Maigret and Maria Roszkowska, Emanuele Quinz, RYBN, Jeffrey Sconce, Noah Teichner, Suzanne Treister, Anne Zeitz

    Web platform: Custom real-time software (HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, p5.js, node.js, socket.io python and figlet). Installation: FullHD video projector, custom built table (Romain Best).

    Optimized for computers (tablets later)

Exhibitions Articles
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Haunted by Algorithms, Real-time web platform, 2017