ALTERNATIVE ARTEFACTS
Alternative Artefacts is an ART installation using sculpture, projection mapping, NEWS MEDIA and Twitter BOTS to critique Trump-era politics.
What do American politics look like post-internet? Welcome to a frenzy of hashtags, bot wars, real-time fact checking, cyber-attacks, online polls, echo chambers and ubiquitous “fake news”. This art installation aims to explore the post-truth and “alternative fact” culture of Trump-era politics via the social media platform Twitter with a specific focus on the service’s automated community.
The project consists of four mixed media “alternative artefacts”. The first is an alternative version of the American Flag. The other three are sculptural artefacts each of which represent a uniquely created Trump-inspired Twitter bot. As a whole these artefacts come together to embody a tangible and unsettling vision of a political climate increasingly influenced by digital automation.
#TrumpBotBanner (American Flag)
Materials: Digital projection on American Flag
Technical: Adobe suite, Projection Mapping w/Isadora
This piece features a text-based animation projection mapped onto the stripes of an American flag. The flag has not been physically distorted, but the projection offers its viewers an alternative artefact version. Scrolling across the six white stripes of the flag are samples of Twitter handle names each followed by percentage values. These names, which have been identified as followers of current US President Donald Trump’s @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, have also been algorithmically identified via an existing algorithm as having a high (>75%) potential of being “Twitter Bot” accounts. Automated Twitter bot accounts, which can be developed and purchased online, are used politically to amplify messages, skew various polls and distort account metrics. The artefact intentionally uses a scrolling animation, a display style reminiscent of a stock market ticker tape, to display these accounts. This specific display is used to suggest that American democracy is up for sale via the political use of these bots.
#TrumpBotArmy (Sculptures)
Materials: Digital projection on head pieces and cinder block (3 sculptures)
Technical: Javascript, Twitter API, Assets w/Adobe suite, Projection Mapping w/Isadora
This piece consists of three sculptures each representing Trump-inspired Twitter bot accounts, which were specifically created for this project. Together, the bots make up a small portion of the “TrumpBot” army. The main concept behind the representation of a “TrumpBot” army is to highlight an alternative version of pseudo-citizens actively participating in political discourse in a public space, and for viewers to question how bots might be affecting American democracy.
Follow the bot accounts live on Twitter: