Liquid user between states and global platforms

Abstract

This thesis explores the contemporary individual, the notion of the user, and technological cultures that stem from states to global digital platforms. Taking its lead from social studies, writings on software, and the artistic practice of the author, the thesis asks where and how does the contemporary individual fit within the digital societies of twenty-first century mediated by the technologies of tracking, listing, and surveillance? Through reflexive analysis, this thesis takes a form of a comparative manual both to think on previous artistic work and to construct a possible world for new work, as the artistic practice of the author looks to reveal and test some of these new experiences brought on by the technologies of self-tracking and digital mediation. By building a lineage from the individual to global computational structures, this writing becomes a thread through the collection of artistic work that the author has produced while at MIT.