Network Effect, Artist, Audience, Data

From a post on Investopedia:

 
“The network effect is a phenomenon whereby increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service. The Internet is an example of the network effect. Initially, there were few users on the Internet since it was of little value to anyone outside of the military and some research scientists.

However, as more users gained access to the Internet, they produced more content, information, and services. The development and improvement of websites attracted more users to connect and do business with each other. As the Internet experienced increases in traffic, it offered more value, leading to a network effect.”

From an essay by Dean Terry at Glasstire:

 
“So how do our considered, thoughtful posts about our life’s work fit in this context? A delicate drawing; an honest, wrenching poem? Not to worry: nearly 50,000 Facebook employees are on it. The drawing is analyzed with computer vision and AI and the poem is parsed and correlated with advertising profiles.”

From an interview with American Artist at Hyperallergic:

 
“People often ask artists “who is your target audience?” but I think this misses the point. First of all it sounds like a corporate marketing survey, but secondly, artists don’t always control who sees their work. What I think artists should really be asking, when they ask themselves “who is the work for?” is who is your work creating space for? Who is your work extending the life span of? Whose ancestors is your work defending? Who will see an image of their self in your work and what kind of image will it be?”
 
“In order for us to understand and confront the ways in which data-based technologies are being integrated into our everyday lives and impacting our ability to self-determine and thrive, we must first understand how our communities—ones marginalized by race, class, gender, sexuality, immigration status, and other natural and imposed identities—are impacted by data-based technologies”

Images and resources I'm working through

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As a Filipino American who is grateful for the life and good fortune I’ve enjoyed in America, I’ve been inspired by others who are challenging themselves, their friends, and their families to take stock of their values and how they choose—every single day—to enact them. Through them and others, I’m beginning to recognizing how my largely silent, passive non-racist attitude/outlook—which I understood as positive, or at least not harmful—has made me complicit in supporting a status quo that continues to damage the lives of Black individuals, families, and communities in this country.

Since high school I’ve always held in high esteem the idea I first learned from reading Emerson: that personal reform is social reform. I still draw strength and inspiration from that conviction, which is why I’m showing these images and linking to these resources. But it is frighteningly clear that such a romantic commitment—so heavily weighted towards the poetic burden of transformative private acts by the individual—can be both indulgent and self satisfying. It is also not social reform. Rather, I’m drawn today to the more direct and still poetic idea attributed to Dr. Cornel West, one that’s finding new life and meaning on and off the Internet:

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”

Finding common cause in collective action and standing alongside others is how laws and systems of oppression are changed. That’s the direct—and public—path to protecting and supporting Black lives.

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It should be summer Olympic time, but it’s not. This now powerful and iconic image (of a peaceful protest that was reviled at the time, and for some time afterwards) taken by John Dominis is absolutely and firmly about the courage and achievement of American gold and bronze medalist sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico games in 1967. But because the subject of this post is about committing to help, I’d like to share a link to the story about Peter Norman, the Australian silver medalist sprinter who stood with them on the podium. From the article:

“Smith and Carlos had already decided to make a statement on the podium. They were to wear black gloves. But Carlos left his at the Olympic village. It was Norman who suggested they should wear one each on alternate hands. Yet Norman had no means of making a protest of his own. So he asked a member of the U.S. rowing team for his “Olympic Project for Human Rights” badge, so that he could show solidarity.”

If you continue to read the article, you will learn that Peter Norman was shunned publicly and largely forgotten for this act of solidarity upon his return to Australia.

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So here are some resources and googledocs I am reading and working through as an individual. They were shared to me by others, and offered with the hope that individual listening, learning, and working for change can be a transformative social good.