Escape the Algorithm

Catalog description

The internet is a vast expanse, a bottomless pit of content, connectivity, and convenience — but so often we only get to skim the bubbles that rise to the top, as filtered through algorithmic popularity contests or the business models and ideologies of megaplatforms. In this course, we'll investigate the products we use every day — websites like Tiktok, Instagram, Wikipedia, Google Maps, and Amazon — and discuss the politics, software logic, network forces, and profit motives that determine what we do and don't see. Then we'll use that knowledge to plunge the deepest darkest depths, digging for the deleted, unread, maligned, and ignored. We'll curate collections, circulate PR campaigns, create web experiences, and craft tools that meditate on these themes and allow us to see the internet and the world in new and exciting ways. As this is a course about being extremely online, rabbit holes will be deeply encouraged. We'll spend plenty of time surfing the web, paying attention to where its designers want us to go, and finding trap doors that lead us elsewhere. We'll explore new research processes and ways of posting. We'll talk about people and accounts that "misuse" technology, or "fail" to gain popularity, and what that can teach us about power. We’ll use tools like Figma and Readymag, employing the visual design principles of the “Small Web” as an antidote to the cold modularity of platform design. We'll gather materials by hand, but we'll also learn how to download and structure content automatically, using both authorized (APIs) or unauthorized (scrapers) means. Ultimately, our goal will be to design new modes of consumption, navigation, and distribution that wrestle agency back from platforms.