New Media

Predicted-Systems

“You’re a product of your environment” once referred only to the three-dimensional world; now we curate that environment pixel by pixel. Every time I unlock my phone, apps launch precision-targeted nudges straight into my subconscious.

This net-art archive displays only the Instagram ads I actually tapped, sorted into three pages: Music (events, songs), Fashion (merch, accessories), and Art practice-related consumption (art classes, events, creative products). For every ad I annotate the exact impulse that triggered the click so visitors can trace how visual cues, interests, and algorithms converge. Mapping those micro-decisions shows one thing clearly: the feed wins my clicks by weaponizing nostalgia. :3

Every page is a hypercolored moodboard of my own tastes: glitter fonts, scene-kid pinks, SoundCloud embeds, Matrix green text, etc. In other words, the layout itself feels custom-skinned for me; a visual mirror of how social media algorithms dress their pitches in my favorite palettes and references, so I’ll trust them.

By mimicking those tailored aesthetics, the site exposes the trick: personalization isn’t a warm hug, it’s a purchase nudge. The louder the UI says “this is so you,” the easier it is to slide a buy-button under your thumb. Here, every glitter border or retro meme becomes evidence of that seduction loop, proof that feeling special is often just step one in the conversion funnel.

Interactive Control Panel

*This is a prototype. The final version may look drastically different.*

The control panel is a laser cut console filled with recycled toy buttons, arcade switches, dials, a joystick, and an Arduino LCD display. This is a prototype, so the final version will likely have fewer buttons. Most inputs are just for show; only a couple actually do anything. Each of them alter the video slightly by changing color hues, adding blur, glitching clips, etc. By allowing participant to discover which buttons work, the panel shows how technology can promise total control while giving almost none. Conceptually it sits beside algorithm driven platforms that mimic choice while quietly steering results to serve the platform’s own goals, not the user’s.