Project #4: Pixel Resistance (COMPLETE!)

“The Algorithm made you a new friend!” DIGITAL REMIX SERIES: A commentary on predatory Advertisement practices.

Time based media, expansion on “GET RICH QUICK!”

ARTIST STATMENT: For this Pixel Resistance project, I aimed to cover a topic I feel that is not addressed often enough, and that is the predatory nature of and mass invasiveness of Advertising across the internet. I did this by collecting many types of found and original media and collating them together to create my series of images (and one time-based media), which I have titled “The Algorithm made you a new friend!” And used all the remix techniques taught to us in order to theme each image in the series after its type of advertisement. I felt as if focusing on just general advertising was not effective enough in displaying the real issues within advertising, so I found it was better to theme each work within the series to be different types of advertising, starting with AI chatbots, Subscription services, Beauty and Skin, and Pop-up spam/scams. All of the advertisements I collected for these pieces are advertisements I either encountered naturally as an internet user or other real ads I found after asking friends and family for ads they themselves found intrusive in their own lives, remixing not only media but my experiences with those of others I knew as well, giving multiple real perspectives in each piece. My first piece on AI chatbots is titled “Your_Friend_Ami_Ga” and remixes real advertisements my friends and I have seen about chatbots and the concerning nature of becoming reliant on these bots instead of forming human connections which can expose young people to explicit or mature content without properly placed guardrails and also encourages sycophancy in order to keep users talking to the chatbot instead of their real life connections. My second, titled “No option but sign up” about Subscription services, is mainly typography based with some found media but remixes the to emulate a service error pop-up one may see on any online service that will not allow you to access what been promised to you unless you sign up for a monthly or yearly subscription. The third reveals the negative impact of the beauty industry, the inherent biases and discrimination present in these ads in terms of age and skin color and the ways it encourages superficiality and insecurity in women  to change who they are through expensive creams and or surgeries to fit the conventional “golden standard”. Then for my fourth we have the piece “GET RICH QUICK!” Displaying the nature of bad moderation of online ads , showing how often these flashy pop-up ads are complete scams and prey on people’s desperation to make a living that promise easy ways to make money but really only serve as a guide to steal information and or even earnings from unsuspecting people. This particular piece was also expanded upon in my time based section of this project to visualize the inescapable feeling that arises when viewing these ads who beg or beckon internet users to click on them to receive an easy reward. It was a bit difficult to put all these pieces together as I tried to do include our new remix skills but avoided any ai use outside of the AI themed piece since there’s such an array of advertisements to choose from but I’m glad I did choose to remix others perspectives in this as helped my pieces evolve from just personal pieces to something that many more people could relate to as I gathered and mix others input along with mine.