Why

Why

Date: 
29.01.2014 17:30
Edition: 
2014
Format: 
Screening
Location: 
HKW
HKW - Lecture Hall
Still from Why by Borja Rodríguez Alonso
Still from Why by Borja Rodríguez Alonso

Borja Rodríguez Alonso’s Why is based on an everyday Google function—the autocomplete...

"Why do white men have small ... why do blacks commit more crimes ... why do Arabs hate the US ... why do Indians smell ... why do Europeans like Canadians ... why do heterosexuals keep creating homosexuals"? Borja Rodríguez Alonso’s Why is based on an everyday Google function—the autocomplete. In order to save the user work, the search engine proposes the most frequent of millions of questions that have already been asked. With this, the nature of the question changes to become a seemingly neutrally calculated predisposition to the question. In fact, no one knows exactly how the parameters of Google algorithms work. Always, when these generated questions appear, they open up a frightening cabinet of curiosities that extends from racism and sexism to an infantile curiosity about body parts. Only with questions about religion do they become startlingly objective, which reinforces the idea of Google interference. And when Alonso concentrates entirely on human stereotypes in his questions, he still cannot escape the famous internet cats, even for a split second.

 

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