Our online behaviour is subject to marketing mechanisms. Clicks, likes, watch time, etc. are transformed into algorithms and constantly monitored and updated in order to maintain personalised content and user engagement. The retrieved information is then monetized through targeted advertising. Meanwhile, most people’s webcam usage has risen exponentially. We open our cameras through video conferences, live streams, and the capture of our daily lives in "stories". Intimate personal details like our living rooms and facial expressions are shared with our online community, but we easily lose sight of the processing chain our images travel through from one device to the next.

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Actively accessing this feed could provide cooperatives with a wealth of new information ready to be fed to their algorithms. Could this be the next step in the growth of the hungry data machines? And where do we, as individuals, draw the line?

 

In a playful way, De Troyer and Reichelt explore the possibility of webcam-based user tracking with the interactive audiovisual installation Data, please! They invite the visitors to engage with their body data in the digital space.
 

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Data, please! was produced for BROWSER2021, an online festival for web-based music, and later adapted for the exhibition of My Behavioral Surplus in the Wagenhallen in Stuttgart (Summer 2021).

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