Jan 30, 2023 Ashton Reeder, Fall 2022 DM Undergraduate Intern

Briefly describe your project and the challenges, lessons learned, and obstacles overcome in the execution of it. What were the professional, academic, and personal motivations underlying your project?

My digital matters project explored the world of dataveillance, a form of capitalistic surveillance that relies on extracting individual digital activity to influence our future decisions. The last few years I had been reflecting on my own thoughts of knowing that my data was being harvested, but actively questioned if it was actually that bad. So, I’d say that my exploration of this topic may have been to answer that question. Diving straight into the world of surveillance I quickly became lost in the sheer amount of data that existed. One of my first discoveries was the file Google had on me which consists of nearly 58 gigabytes of text files containing my personal information, habits, and location data. All dating back to when I was just 13 years old. One of my first challenges after this was to attempt to show the vastness of big data. Which culminated in a few separate data visualizations that showed who was tracking us, what devices track us, how often tracking occurs, and where this data gets sold to. This process was extremely laborious and resulted in a 12-foot-tall data visualization of 1200 separate American companies that actively harvest data on their users, a map of all physical surveillance cameras in downtown Salt Lake City, and an analysis of an individual marketing report based on my data.

How did the Digital Matters Faculty Grant dovetail with your academic pursuits? What interested you in applying for this grant?

Fall 2020 was my final semester of undergrad. The Digital Matters internship paired extremely well with my senior capstone project in the Multidisciplinary Design program. The position allowed me to focus more time on the research, and the funding was able to supplement material and software costs. Digital Matters was also an excellent place for me to be challenged by other scholars in terms of research, helping prepare me for (hopefully) future grad school endeavors.

What do you see as the upcoming important issues surrounding digital scholarship in your field? What areas/issues could students and scholars investigate to extend the knowledge in this area?

One of the most pressing ‘issues’ in the field of design is how artificial intelligence processes may displace us. Alternatively, if used properly, they are tools to help us push our work further. To me I see these tools, like DALL-E, as a way for non-visual designers to enter the more visual creative space. Though this accessibility is important, we also must investigate the issues surrounding the onslaught of AI by asking questions such as: how we can use these tools responsibly and what are the greater societal impacts of these tools.

For inspiration on how these tools can be used in a very intriguing and boundary defining way, check out artist Rafik Anadol and his numerous projects on machine hallucinations.

What would you tell potential graduate fellowship applicants to help them shape their own digital scholarship project?

At an undergraduate level, the thought of pursuing independent research was a bit daunting. My advice is to just take the leap and plan a project in your field of interest. During my application to DM, I proposed a very broad topic of ‘surveillance’ then let the process of research shape the end result. The final note is to never let a project be done. Though you may publish a paper, or present your work, continue to let it grow and inform your future practice.

The last few months it has been revealed that the Iranian government is using facial recognition software to punish women who fail to observe the state’s hijab laws. Stories of systemic data abuse like this have inspired me to shift my design practice away from creating for industry, and instead to create sociological and environmental interventions. All in the name of challenging these unjust systems. I’ve noticed that the next generation of designers are doing the same. Often pairing with traditional academics to further the more scientific research and open it up to a wider audience. Thus, challenging systems, like dataveillance, with a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach.