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Simon Alexander Boas
I’m a creative researcher who thinks about technology and society. Here are some of my projects.
An investigation into information oversharing in dating apps that began with a series of trading cards made from user data and culminated in a procedurally edited documentary installation that features interview sabout misogyny with men algortihmically targeted via their dating app profiles. Presented at SIGGRAPH 2019.
A report by the Tactical Technology Collective on personal data security in dating apps. My contribution involved using network protocol analysis to reveal a startling lack of privacy controls in these apps, with advertising traffic leaks potentially exposing sensitive user details like GPS locations and sexual orientations.
I co-authored a chapter with my collaborator Kris Blackmore for this book edited by Donatella Della Ratta, Geert Lovink, Teresa Numerico, and Peter Sarram. We discuss our project ‘Yes in Disguise,’ a series of trading cards made from real dating website user data. This project explores our willingness to share deeply personal and often controversial beliefs through networked digital platforms offers opportunities for targeted conversations on sensitive cultural issues.
How do views on sexual promiscuity vary by gender and sexual orientation as expressed through online dating profiles? A data investigation and visualization.
A print series that leverages AI object recognition and natural language processing to deconstruct then reassemble New York Times images based on predicted emotional responses, regulating the chaos we face daily to an absurdly smooth gradient. Read more about this project in my interview with Nicola Bozzi for Carnation Contemporary.
A data-driven installation that presents a single digital image—a "loading" image captured from Instagram—one pixel at a time over the course of weeks, transforming each color into immersive sound and light.
A real-time system installation that invites visitors to examine their own participation in the attention economy that sustains industries ranging from for-profit mugshot websites to ubiquitous social media platforms. Reviewed by Benedetta Sabatini in Neural #63.