(Final project for Core Studio/Lab: Collaboration and Code 2: Data Poetics)
Datatopia is an interactive installation that reframes the unsustainable online data tracking system into a sci-fi narrative. It consists of an interface for experiencing the narrative of traveling in a world made of text, a server that logs every bit of information the audience has input, and a printer that prints out a unique story generated based on user input every time. During the journey, the user also travels with two other passengers who have been to Datatopia before to give instructions in each scene. Their names are the real names of the previous two users.
Looking at the development of personal privacy in history, Datatopia investigates different types of relationships between us and the data we generate on daily basis to speculate the future definition of privacy.
Some definitions of privacy over time:
- unnatural
- physical boundaries
- psychological awareness
- a right to fight for
- commodities, luxuries
What the future of privacy will be? Will it disappear again for wealth, convenience, fame and more radical social transparency? One answer can be that privacy will the ability to construct an unobstructed identity without the interference of the information overflow from data mining. But of course, this is a very broad question and Datatopia does not give an answer. It only intends to raise awareness for the general audience of the vulnerability of their data collected by marketers for unethical commercial use. The printout story, mainly created with context free grammar, provides a more tangible form to look at our own information that we have neglected. Some information of the two previous travelers are also leaked in the story.
