Human-Computer Counter-Choreographies: raising awareness of data tracking through live coding

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  1. Online algorithms, especially data tracking algorithms, are often designed in ways that are difficult to understand, causing users to be unknowingly tracked and manipulated.
  2. These systems not only accumulate user data but also exacerbate inequalities and potentially harm users.
  3. Despite the introduction of privacy regulations such as GDPR, while data transparency has improved, online tracking behaviors have not significantly decreased.
  4. Current user behaviors on the internet are easily captured by ad-driven tracking technologies, with users lacking understanding and proactive awareness of these processes.

• Importance of the Issue:

  1. Revealing the operational mechanisms of tracking algorithms to the public can enhance awareness of data privacy, helping users better protect their own data.
  2. Performing arts and interdisciplinary approaches offer new opportunities to provoke deeper public reflection on privacy issues through emotional and interactive methods.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  1. Studies show that privacy education and engagement are key to improving data literacy.
  2. Existing attempts in HCI and the arts have integrated dance, role-playing, and data interaction to explore the social and ethical implications of human-computer interaction. These efforts inspire the potential of combining live coding with interactive dance.
  3. The authors propose a novel artistic performance to reveal these insights and promote data-driven thinking and reflection.

Solution

• Proposed Method or Solution:

  1. Designed a performance based on live coding and dance titled "Human-Computer Counter-Choreographies (HCCC)."
  2. Utilized a modified DuckDuckGo privacy plugin combined with JavaScript code to visualize and sonify online tracking algorithms, replacing their traditional hidden operations.
  3. Engaged the audience through physical activities (following choreographed movement prompts) to allow them to "experience" tracking algorithms.

• Innovative Aspects:

  1. A pioneering artistic approach combining live coding with dance choreography to reveal the operational mechanisms of mainstream algorithms on user data.
  2. Introducing bodily participation, breaking away from the passive observation of abstract data, and fostering a tangible understanding of tracking algorithms through physical perception.
  3. Using the browser as a stage, deeply integrating technology with performance art to emphasize the materialization and criticality of digital interaction environments.

• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:

  1. Browser and Tool Design: Leveraged a modified DuckDuckGo extension to dynamically display tracking requests and scripts.
  2. Visualization and Sonification: Transformed tracking information into text overlays, background color changes, and metronome sound effects.
  3. Audience Choreographed Participation: Designed a series of movement prompts (e.g., standing, moving) to simulate the structuring process of data in online tracking.
  4. Dramaturgy: Created a performance narrative, transitioning from the revelation of tracking data to audience reactions, crafting peak experiences.
  5. Feedback Collection: Measured changes in audience awareness and attitudes toward online tracking through surveys and qualitative analysis.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  1. Significantly improved audience awareness and understanding of online tracking algorithms, fostering new perspectives on digital privacy.
  2. Created a novel form of live coding performance that integrates technological critique, audience interaction, and visual art.
  3. Enabled audiences to tangibly experience how online platforms record and influence their behaviors through dynamically generated data feedback.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  1. Unlike traditional algorithm transparency projects that are one-directional, this performance creates a participatory and immersive learning experience through bodily involvement.
  2. Goes beyond merely showcasing data tracking phenomena, emphasizing how these phenomena relate to digital privacy and user agency.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  1. Analyzed survey feedback from 43 audience members, revealing a collective increase in awareness of tracking algorithms (significant improvement on Likert Scale).
  2. Audience members reported that through physical participation and live algorithm enactment, they felt how online tracking and algorithm operations manipulate daily behaviors.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. Limitations: Current audiences are primarily participants in art and technology conferences, with strong technical backgrounds, which limits reach to the general public.
  2. Future Improvements:
     • Expand to broader audiences, such as non-technical users or public domains (e.g., public exhibitions or online streaming).
     • Explore longer-term changes in audience behavior, such as whether the performance inspires actions to avoid tracking algorithms.
     • Integrate real-time personal data from audiences (e.g., via smartphones) in future performances.
     • More explicitly investigate the potential of "counter-control choreography" to inspire further anti-data exploitation actions.

Conclusion

This study presents a novel approach combining live coding, bodily participation, and artistic performance to effectively expose and critically reflect on online tracking systems. By creatively integrating technology and art, HCCC not only enhances audience awareness but also opens new avenues for exploring technological resistance and data ethics education.