'YOU ARE NOW LESS VALUABLE THAN THE DATA YOU PRODUCE.' // Play & Self - APD Week 1

Weekly response 1 - Play & Self: (Also posted on Teams Channel)
(Reference image from video - Watchdogs 2 - DedSec Exposing The Agenda (Intro), linked below)

The concept of self is difficult to determine from the first perspective, as physical appearance and feature can be highly subjective while personality could be ever changing and morphing through environments and time. However, there is a continuous experience or pattern for people to navigate their world as themselves. I think in order to determine a constant, ever-changing self, we need something that is less affected by time, can measure or record events on a larger scale of time, which leads to me thinking

The algorithms of social medias and various apps are already doing them It might be a description, or at least an illusion of self, that is recorded on a larger scale.

In week 1's response I am going to explore the idea of self through digging, revealing and trading data of myself with others, but without me communicating or engaging with participants directly through language, gestures or words.

The inspiration comes from a quote from the game Watch Dogs 2:

'You are now less valuable than the data you produce.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXTr8f6qmZ4 at 1:36

Method:

Due to the scale and time for the weekly project, this weekly response would be a quick test and play, but it might be interesting to explore further if possible. I would be experimenting and observing other people's reaction, as they learn about the 'self' of me only through my data downloaded from facebook (2019-01 - 2022-03). I am thinking about some ways to make this happen during the weekend:

- download facebook data of myself (complete)
- print them out, cut them into small pieces of paper with information
- price each piece information with tag
- give participants a budget (for example, if participants identify as: individual - $100, indie studio - 500$, Large Crop - 800$), with a different, but common goal for them: find out information about Mohan, and determine whether they are an ideal friend/co-worker/employee only using the information and data from facebook, that the budget would be purchasing with
- then I would collect the result and record it

Feedbacks are welcome Currently in the step of organising info, facebook data of 3 years gave me a huge packsge of 922MB data