Here's The Information We Collect
by Tansy Xiao
2024
The online version of Here's the Information We Collect is a web-based speech recognition project tailored to respond to selected privacy policy on major social media platforms. The audience members are invited to engage with the work by speaking into a microphone. Their words will be processed by a pre-coded speech recognition program to match the key words to specific sonic elements performed by professional vocalists, creating a dynamic and evolving musical score in real-time. The project employs the privacy policy of a particular cyber enterprise as an entry point to explore the implications of our online data and the tension between privacy, surveillance, and the free flow of information in the digital age. It also calls attention to tech corporations' collection and capitalization of user data behind the scenes as a form of digital colonialism.
Tansy Xiao
Tansy Xiao is an artist, curator and writer based in New York. Xiao creates theatrical installations with non-linear narratives that often extend beyond the fourth wall. Her work explores the immense power and inherent inadequacy of language through the assemblage of stochastic audio and recontextualized objects. She finds solace in the unknown, ludicrousness in the authorities, and absurdity in the geopolitical demarcations that separate and differentiate people.