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Data and Internet Arts

Language becomes data when it can no longer take on abstract meaning. According to the readings, Facebook and Google are able to use algorithms to track what we read or write and do things like have specific advertisements pop up according to our interests. Data serves us in that it does make the mundane parts of life easier, like organizing information. But it is limited in that it cannot change our habits or have us deal with that information the way it should be. Some concerns of data are that it can be used as surveillance and that so-called capitalist companies are collecting our data without us necessarily wanting them to, as was said in the "Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism" reading.

I am unsure of how we can make creative and textual use of data online. I am not sure what the two mean. I feel like creativity and data come in a lot when it comes to digital language arts, such as Twitterbots or Googlisms. They are told we have been using throughout the semester, and we use these tools to pump out our own digital language art or creative data. I am not sure what textual means with regards to this, whether it means having a text that sounds pretty, critically thinking about text, or setting up algorithms that have context. I am not sure what that last one would entail. I do think it is important, however, that data be used mostly as a tool, and that we ourselves take agency in our creative endeavors.

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