User:Buzzo/project proposal
23/11/2017
KEYWORDS
Big Data, Search Engines, Filter Bubble, Linked Data, Incremental Gaming, Progressive Disclosure, Slow Search, Serendipitous Search, Semantic Web, Interface Design, User Experience, Relational Databases, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning.
20/09/2017
Draft Project Proposal.
[s: I made a few edits here. Can you spot them? Clue: change all "want to" to "will"]
Description of the project
[project title] I want to make a search engine with a gameable interface, a research tool with a playful way to discover new material. This will be a playful artistic intervention that takes and tweaks influence and input from the user to bring interesting and unexpected results. Implementing notions taken from slow technology “Slow technology focuses on envelopment rather than development...” Lars HALLNÄS
What do I want to make? (Intro // Abstract)
The project will focus on generating different algorithms to produce varying search results. The algorithm for the search engine will change according to user input through a gameable interface. This will allow room for a range of outcomes and generate new and unexpected outcomes whilst still remaining relevant to the individual. In this way I hope to create a useful and playful tool to help users find things outside of their filter bubble and provide material from outside of their usual search areas. I would like to focus on the active participation of the searcher to directly influence their search results. This steers me away from search results that are generated through passive activity of the searcher, ie previous browsing and recent online activity used to tailor the results. The actions of the player within the game will tweak the search algorithm and generate different results for each player.
An alternative experimental look at ways of discovering information and resources. I am interested in looking at the notion and idea of serendipity within the search process. Touching on the subject of slow-searching to allow for time and valuable reflection within the search method. The reference of time and digestion and the immediacy offered to us within current digital archives and libraries. “invite the searcher into a reflective search activity, by slowing down the search process and thus encouraging them to be mindful of their intentions, present in their interactions, and reflective about what is presented to them.” Dörk, Bennett, Davies
I will be looking at a playable interface as a means of navigating digital libraries and archives. I would propose a different interface for exploring these digital libraries, one which can be re-configured and explored through the actions of a wandering reader. I will be looking at the ways our information navigation and reading habits can be shaped by digital libraries. I want to move away from “the query” as the way of discovering or finding information within a selection of content, and instead to focus on the amble / unstructured walk / slow reveal as a means of search and discovery. I want to increase the ways in which one can explore information. Huge amounts of information are stored and yet rarely accessed, through search algorithms that would never make certain connections.
How do I plan to make it?
The project will be developed using nodejs, using this programming language to index and search through online databases. The first step of the project is to work out the exact parameters of a search engine and from there to tweak the results with direct input from the user, for example switching certain search words to a close synonym or to flip to the opposite meaning. In this respect the results displayed will still be relevant and recognisable but also unexpected. The aim here is to use simple, accessible, and recognisable formats to keep the focus on the content. I would use this INTERFACE as a guide/companion to hopefully give those attempting research other options and ways of searching. I want to increase the ways in which one can explore information. From here I turn to Kevin Kelly the author of What Technology Wants who states the following “As a practical matter I’ve learned to seek the minimum amount of technology for myself that will create the maximum amount of choices for myself and others.”
This project will develop through hands on experiments that will inform ways to tweak my search engine algorithms, and other elements to introduce within the framework of the game. The first stage of the project is to recognise the parameters I wish to work within, once I have worked out where the current and existing edges of my area of research are, I can choose which direction to push in. These experiments will directly inform the ways in which I will play with the recipe for the algorithm. From here I will make an informed choice as to the best way of implementing my idea. There are truly inconceivable amounts of literature stored as big data somewhere just waiting to be explored, as mentioned by Jean-Francois Lyotard “Data banks are the Encyclopedia of tomorrow. They transcend the capacity of each of their users. They are "nature" for postmodern man.”
This quote resonates with me, as the idea of data banks as the Encyclopedia of our current generation, doesn’t quite match with the current state of databanks. To me encyclopedias are exciting things, filled with a wealth of knowledge that one could happily spend hours pouring(spelling?) over, a place where you could happily stumble across things. I want our archives and datasets to evoke that same wonder. (messy opinionated metaphor here about how my google search encyclopedia only show’s me pages if I can think of them, so I get a very boring book filled with things I already know)
What is my timetable?
Week by Week September - December I will research techniques and methods for storytelling and explorable spaces within the game environment and thus choose the most appropriate technique by december. December onwards = main game play build & narrative/content established.
Why do I want to make it?
Exploring the intuitive human wander/discover/investigate/explore within a digital realm. I will explore different options for navigating large sources of information in a game-like way. Considering our reading and browsing habits as game-like wandering / exploring. An alternative experimental look at ways of discovering information and resources.
Relation to previous practice
Previous work was focussed on the human factor within digital publications, and how this can be introduced to create an ad-hoc social network “on-the-fly”. I looked at the idea of stamping (physical trait taken from traditional libraries) and implemented this to digital documents accumulatively to show a shadow and presence of other “readers” within a space, to create an awareness of people within these archives. Reintroducing the human factor to digital publications.
[make links to these projects]
Relation to larger context
?? Data storage, archive collecting, things are being collected and managed but with (I think) little to no thought going into ways of exploring these vast collections, unless shown by a guide // librarian // someone with the knowledge. “Editors picks” etc “book of the week” or in a lot of online archives things are sorted by other people into mini collections or smaller areas of relevance.
References///Themes
Memory palaces - as a space for storing information, I am interested in the placing of information within an explorable space. DIGITAL Archives & Libraries - the overwhelming quantity of things within such a space, that often get lost because you may not be able to know what you are looking for, therefore would not chance upon such a piece. I will focus on the human factor within digital spaces, and look to the motion and movement of wandering/ sifting through physical archives as a means of discovery, and the human intuition to “look around the corner” or to “look at the shelf of recently returned items”
Frontiership - name of the discoverer “No mans sky” “He wanted to evoke the imagined feeling of landing on a planet and being the first person to discover it, the sense of awe and trepidation at not knowing what secrets lay within a place’s geographical folds and spires.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/12/no-mans-sky-18-quintillion-planets-hello-games
I am interested in non-linear narratives.
Memory palaces.
Information storage and access.
Methods of search and discovery.
Incremental story-telling.
Progressive Disclosure.
Exploration. Aim-less wandering. Discovery. Navigation. Memory Palaces. Incremental Story-telling. Data storage. Digital publications. Progressive Disclosure. Browsing. Searching (to differentiate between browsing and searching) *
Online digital libraries and collections. Centre for game-science - washington Non-linear approaches “design the human into the process”