IS THE ART OF DISCOVERY DEAD?
Fed up with being told what to wear, what to watch, what to hear? It’s time to disrupt the algorithm
“It’s up to us to be accountable, move outside our comfort zones and not rely on our iphones as a source of all information”
When was the last time you found something without googling it or allowing an algorithm to find it for you? If you did, we’ll bet you found exactly what you were looking for anyway. That’s the thing about “discovery” – from Spotify’s Daily Mixes to Netflix’s recommended shows through to think pieces on whatever political view you and your 857 friends possess, the system almost exclusively gives you what you already knew you needed.
Interestingly, for the algorithm to work, it relies on your friends or those who think exactly like you – Spotify, for example, creates its on-point “Discover Weekly” playlist from looking at your playlists and comparing it with others who like the same. Then sells it as “curated”. It may be helpful, but is that truly unearthing the unfamiliar? Jolting the senses to consider the outside world? Forming a new perspective? Well, no. Never before have we had more of a chance to explore the world around us and yet been so complacent in what is offered by a scattered pattern of zeroes and ones, farmed from those who think exactly like us.
“Curating is about how you communicate, how you facilitate opportunities to explore the ideas of our time and creating a space for uncertainty,” says Alexie Glass-kantor, curator and executive director of Sydney’s Artspace, which from January will be hosting 52 Artists 52 Actions, an exhibition of unpredictability where 52 global artists (one every week of the year) will respond to a troubled world via a dedicated Instagram account. “I don’t believe you can curate a shoe collection or a playlist,” adds Glasskantor. “You make a playlist. You have a shoe collection. The algorithm isn’t a curator either, because choosing stuff you like is not curating. It’s more precarious and tenuous than that.” When we let the algorithm win, we end up in a bubble – Brexit was never going to happen and Donald Trump would never become president. 2017 has been the year of being “woke”, but that only truly happens when the system is disrupted and we engage in some old-fashioned exploration.
“I don’t mind that social media is nuanced towards what it sees as my predicted interests,” says Glasskantor. “But it’s up to us to be accountable, move outside our comfort zones and not rely on our iphones as a source of all information.” You want to discover the world? Be in the world. “Be the spanner in your algorithm, be your own disruptor. Look things up you hate, chase things down, be engaged. You can’t rely on one network, because you only get one form of reality. Go to film festivals, writers’ festivals, art galleries, bookshops. That’s why books haven’t died. That’s why galleries haven’t died. That’s why people still go to the cinema. Because there’s something different about walking into a material space and sharing an experience of exploration in the real world that allows for a level of unpredictability you can’t get through your devices.”