The Hmm

💨​ Human or fake? How AI is distorting beauty standards: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2024/feb/27/human-or-fake-how-ai-is-distorting-beauty-standards-video 💨​ Silly Girl Theory: Scrolling the Digital Playgrounds: https://networkcultures.org/longform/2024/02/16/silly-girl-theory-scrolling-the-digital-playgrounds/ 💨​ I Can’t Be The Only One Exhausted By Aesthetic Culture: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/too-many-aesthetics-burnout?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email 💨​ Identifying the digital self: https://newdesigncongress.org/en/note/2024/identifying-the-digital-self/ 💨​ Critical Futures Talks series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g776tBzYgvw 💨​ A calculator that shows how underpriced data labeling or data training tasks are: https://trk.network/ 💨​ Emotionally Intelligent Scrolling?: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/digital-health-and-well-being/202402/emotionally-intelligent-scrolling 💨​ Everyone Knows That: how the internet became obsessed with lostwave: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/62053/1/lostwave-youtube-everyone-knows-that-reddit-lost-songs-like-the-wind 💨 Indexing the information age:​ https://aeon.co/essays/the-birth-of-our-system-for-describing-web-content

Goooodmorning! Just a little announcement: on the 4th of April we’re back with our first event of 2024! 💫 This year's first edition will take place at Extrapool in Nijmegen. We’ve invited eight researchers, artists, and designers who will take us through their digital worlds and their intersections and interactions with internet culture. We’re excited to have philosopher of science, educator and researcher Sabine Winters helping us to put together a powerful program for this night. Since the venue has limited capacity, grab your tickets quickly! 🗓 Thursday 4 April 2024 📍 Extrapool, Nijmegen 🕗 20.00 CEST 🎟 Tickets: regular €8 / student discount €5 / online livestream €5

🐉 Kyle Chayka on his new book "Filterworld": https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61986/1/go-viral-or-die-how-the-algorithm-took-over-filterworld-kyle-chayka 🐉 Her? A decade later…: https://www.theverge.com/24066233/her-ai-film-spike-jonze-joaquin-phoenix-scarlett-johansson 🐉 Have We Reached the End of TikTok’s Infinite Scroll?: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/arts/music/tiktok-over.html 🐉 “The Algorithm” Does Not Exist: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/the-algorithm-social-media-facebook-technology-the-apparatus/ 🐉 Feast your eyes on OpenAI's new text-to-video application Sora: https://petapixel.com/2024/02/20/all-the-terrifying-ai-videos-made-by-openais-sora-so-far/ 🐉 TikTok has seen a bizarre explosion of language as creators rush to coin terms: https://www.vox.com/culture/24062406/tiktok-trends-slang-terms-coining 🐉 Why dolls are making a comeback: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61941/1/uncanny-valley-of-the-dolls-why-dolls-are-making-comeback-barbie-margiela 🐉 They wanted careers in tech. They’re stuck as TikTok moderators: https://restofworld.org/2024/content-moderators-jobs-pakistan/

Hey all, here are all the articles we’ve read this week! And by the way, did you know we also dropped two 🔥hot🔥 new items in our shop? 🤩🌟 Our first edition of patches in the Hmm’s patch collection. Designed by interdisciplinary designer Michael Fowler. PLUS a tote bag emblazoned with our favourite kaomojis, specially designed to show off all of these uniquely designed patches. 💖🎀

🫂 Is TikTok over? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/arts/music/tiktok-over.html 🫂 Three AI insights for hard-charging, future-oriented smartypantses: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/ 🫂 'Ballerina farm' gave birth two weeks ago. Now she’s in a beauty pageant: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/style/ballerina-farm-mrs-world-hannah-neeleman.html 🫂 The 4chan incels are using AI to cover girls in thirst traps in modest clothing: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61875/1/4chan-users-are-using-ai-to-dignify-your-thirst-traps 🫂 Stop trying to make "loud budgeting" happen—against TikTok slang for the sake of it: https://www.vox.com/culture/24062406/tiktok-trends-slang-terms-coining 🫂 I Tried 'Softmaxxing.' It's a Toxic and Dangerous Trend: https://www.businessinsider.com/looksmaxxing-softmaxxing-mewing-self-improvement-experiment-toxic-dangerous-2023-11?international=true&r=US&IR=T 🫂 You can now use AI to search by vibes in Google Maps: https://bgr.com/tech/you-can-now-use-ai-to-search-by-vibes-in-google-maps/ 🫂 Where Will Virtual Reality Take Us?: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/where-will-virtual-reality-take-us

Goodmorning everyone! 🤗 We hope your weekend is off to a good start. Here are again some new articles we gathered for you 🤓

🧤 The rise of the group chat: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/magazine/group-chats.html 🧤 How social-media and search algorithms push for bloated content: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/01/long-youtube-videos-tiktok/677130/ 🧤 Get rid of your meaningless notifications: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/18/clear-notifications-email-apps-phone/ 🧤 Group-Chat Culture Is Out of Control: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2023/09/group-chat-whatsapp-social-media-replacement/675473/ 🧤 Why can’t we move past 2014?: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61702/1/why-cant-we-move-past-2014-nostalgia 🧤 Tween taste is expensive these days. Blame social media: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/14/trends-tweens-tiktok-social-media-skin-care/ 🧤 Timhouthi Chalamet: what you need to know about the viral Yemeni ‘pirate’: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61766/1/timhouthi-chalamet-everything-you-need-to-know-yemeni-pirates 🧤 Forbidden Colors Generator by Noam Youngrak Son: https://www.d-act.org/forbiddencolors.html 🧤 Inside the world of 90s gamers and LAN Party culture: https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/61751/1/lan-party-merrtt-k-90s-gamers-y2k-gaming-subculture

Good morning all, happy weekend! 🕺💅 Here are some links for you to read through this weekend. Enjoy 💫

🧽 What a shitposting sort-of fake Twitter bot can teach us about AI: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/03/twitter-horseebook-ai-chatbot-openai 🧽 The newest publication by V2_Lab for the Unstable Media {class} – On Consequences in Algorithmic Classification: https://www.v2.nl/publications/class-on-consequences-in-algorithmic-classification#pdf-viewer 🧽 The New Digital Dark Age and the future in even more opaque, AI-generated social media: https://www.wired.com/story/the-new-digital-dark-age/ 🧽 The deep mellow valley: https://networkcultures.org/longform/2024/01/11/the-deep-mellow-valley/ 🧽 The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/internet-future-about-to-get-weird-1234938403/ 🧽 How permanent are our digital memories?: https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/big-tech/2023/12/big-tech-destroy-digital-memories 🧽 Why is NASA beaming cat videos to Earth from deep space?: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61642/1/cat-videos-and-space-lasers-are-back-in-style-according-to-nasa-taters 🧽 Divorce sales in Facebook Marketplace: https://escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/the-real-divorcees-of-facebook-marketplace

Hey everyone! Happy new year from us 🥂🌟 We’re back from our little winter hibernation, excited for this year to bring back popular events like the data centre tour and to introduce new ones, including an exhibition! We’ll also be delving into topics like the intriguing relationship between language and AI and the emerging trend of momfluencers. 🧑‍🍼🤳🏼 Are you working on or are you researching one of these topics? Or do you have a special fascination with them? Don't hesitate to send us an e-mail to info@thehmm.nl. Perhaps we can involve you in our program this year. 🤝👀

💅 New film by Alan Warburton, The Wizard of AI (2023) Single Channel HD Video Essay, 19m 19s, subtitled: https://alanwarburton.co.uk/ 💅Your Smart TV Knows What You’re Watching: https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/12/12/your-smart-tv-knows-what-youre-watching 💅 The year A.I. ate the internet: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-year-ai-ate-the-internet 💅 The reality of being in a YouTube prank relationship: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9q7a/do-people-like-pranks-youtubers 💅 Pop Stars Aren’t Popping Like They Used To — Do Labels Have a Plan?: https://www.billboard.com/pro/record-labels-adjust-expectations-pop-stars/ 💅 Elon Musk’s new Optimus robots are coming for your eggs: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61580/1/elon-musks-new-optimus-gen-2-robots-tesla-are-coming-for-your-eggs 💅 Why It’s So Hard to Search Your Email: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/12/email-search-bad-google-machine-learning-data/676334/ 💅 Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year Is … ‘Rizz’: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/arts/rizz-oxford-word-year.html 💅 The Memes That Carried Us Through 2023: https://hyperallergic.com/861914/the-memes-that-carried-us-through-2023/

As we close the books on 2023, with so many lovely events we were able to organise with you, we’d like to take a moment to ask you of one more favour: to fill in our audience survey so that we can continue to develop programs and do research that is relevant, urgent, and exciting! 🫰✨ When filling in our survey you get the chance to win a year pass to all our Hmm events and a special mystery merch item. 🙀 If you’d like to watch back our most recent events, you can do so at our livestream website. For now, this is going to be the last telegram link drop until the new year. We’re wishing you Happy Holidays! 🎄💫❄️ Take care and we can’t wait to share our plans for 2024 with you!

🫒 Everyone Is a Girl Online: https://www.wired.com/story/girls-online-culture/ 🫒 From Surrealist Automatism to AI Art: The Search for the New/Unknown in Art: https://twitter.com/FellowshipAi/status/1728886426484322557?s=20 🫒 Ben Ditto: Cloudburst — Dust to dust, silica to silica: https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/ben-ditto-cloudburst-silica 🫒 Meet the “Chatters”: anonymous workers hired to ghostwrite messages and build intimate relationships with none-the-wiser fans: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3b33/onlyfans-management-agency-chatters 🫒 Why do so many conservatives want to ban TikTok? https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61350/1/why-do-conservatives-hate-tiktok-ban-communism-woke-ideology-china 🫒 Bekijk de data achter online campagnes van politieke partijen de afgelopen verkiezingen: https://campagnemonitor.groene.nl/ 🫒 Give the Bambis and babygirls their credit: in defense of prey mode: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61336/1/going-prey-mode-girls-cute-animals-online-canthal-tilt-tiktok

Goodmorning hmm friends, hope your weekend is off to a good start! We would like to let you know that next week December 6th, our final event of 2023 is happening 🥺💕 We have a full day program! Join us for The Hmm Ask Us Anything: Hotline on AI Advice, where we’ll answer all your questions, speculations, or anxieties regarding AI. During our live radio show, we invited 3 AI experts that will answer all your questions live. Prior to the event you can already submit your questions anonymously on our Hotline! ☎️🤙 And / or join us for the AI Workshop: Meet Your Stochastic Sloth! 🦥 We’re you’ll to broaden your own practice with experimental approaches to co-creating with AI. ✏️ Hope to see you there! 🫶

🍉 E-SIMs provide a line of support amidst Gaza blackout: https://politicstoday.org/e-sim-provide-a-line-of-support-amidst-gaza-blackout/ 🍉 Artists say they’re being punished for supporting Gaza ceasefire: https://hyperallergic.com/852849/artists-supporting-gaza-ceasefire-face-threats-and-professional-repercussions/ 🍉 Separating fact from fiction on social media in times of conflict: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2023/10/26/separating-fact-from-fiction-on-social-media-in-times-of-conflict/ 🍉 ‘For the algorithm’: Pro-Palestine supporters rally to bypass biased online censorship: https://dohanews.co/for-the-algorithm-pro-palestine-supporters-rally-to-bypass-biased-online-censorship/ 🍉 How to bypass Instagram's setting that hides Palestinian content: https://www.instagram.com/p/CyYmAPSgJYw/ 🍉 How Watermelon Became a Symbol of Palestinian Resistance: https://hyperallergic.com/666111/how-watermelon-became-a-symbol-of-palestinian-resistance/ 🍉 Tips om jezelf als burger en activist online beter te beschermen: https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/2023/11/15/tips-om-jezelf-als-burger-en-activist-online-beter-te-beschermen/ 🍉 ‘Let Me Tell Them Goodbye Before They Get Killed’: How eSIM Cards Are Connecting Palestinian Families: https://themarkup.org/news/2023/11/07/let-me-tell-them-goodbye-before-they-get-killed-how-esims-cards-are-connecting-palestinian-families 🍉 Download and print your own sticker: https://www.jewsandfriends.com/ 🍉 A map that converges geo-spacial data and oral archive indeces to create re-constructed traces of the disappearing palestinian nation: https://palopenmaps.org/en/maps/jerusalem?basemap=9&overlay=pal1940&toggles=places 🍉 No tech for apartheid: https://www.notechforapartheid.com/ 🍉 Automated Apartheid: How facial recognition fragments, segregates and controls Palestinians in the OPT: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/6701/2023/en/ 🍉 A list of more initiatives by civil society organisations, researchers and journalists: https://racismandtechnology.center/2023/10/16/standing-in-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-people/

Goodmorning Hmm friends, this weekend we would like to share some links with you that give insight into the role of the Internet in relation to the ongoing violence happening in Gaza against Palestinians and how this plays out online. From cultural workers facing backlash after voicing their support for Palestine to E-SIMs providing a line of support amidst the Gaza blackout, we hope to give you some insight and tips on what you can do to help 🇵🇸🙏 🍉

🎃 What if we could all control A.I.? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/technology/ai-chatbot-control.html 🎃 How pro-Palestinian voices on social media avoid Gaza censorship and shadow bans: https://www.newarab.com/features/palestinian-instagram-avoids-gaza-censorship-and-shadow-bans?amp 🎃 Meta claims an auto-translation bug caused the inappropriate label "Palestinian terrorists" being added to some user profiles: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/20/instagram-palestinian-user-profile-bios-terrorist-added-translation-meta-apology 🎃 A comprehensive archive of the influential Whole Earth Catalog is now online: https://www.wired.com/story/whole-earth-catalog-now-online-internet-archive/ 🎃 The "enshittification" of Bandcamp has been set in motion: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/is-bandcamp-as-we-know-it-over/ 🎃 Blessed and emoji-pilled: why language online is so absurd: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61151/1/blessed-and-emoji-pilled-why-language-online-is-so-absurd 🎃 AI Has a Hotness Problem: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/10/ai-image-generation-hot-people/675750/ 🎃 Kendall Jenner is the face of Meta's chatbot Billie: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3AL10AyLkMUZGudxM604w8?si=1ee5eaf51b094d5b 🎃 Israeli restrictions leave Palestinians facing digital divide: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/israeli-restrictions-leave-palestinians-facing-digital-divide

Hey all, we’re resuming our bi-weekly telegram link drop again from our little hibernation (we actually forgot 🤪). Here are some links for you to read through this weekend. 👀 And by the way, our next event is coming up soon! We’re going to take a look back at digital art and how the internet has shaped culture from the 1960s until today. Join us November 15th for The Hmm @ REBOOT at Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. 📡💽🚀

🏰 What do you do when your online brand doesn't match with who you are anymore? https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/influencer-creator-rebrand-problem-lee-tilghman 🏰 Hannah Diamond has cracked the code of using AI for music: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/hannah-diamond-has-cracked-the-code-ai-music 🏰 Cory Doctorow on why the internet broke and how to fix it: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3w4k/cyber-cory-doctorow-on-why-the-internet-broke-and-how-to-fix-it 🏰 My chilling run-in with a secretive facial-recognition app: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-app-chilling/ 🏰 Where Did the QWERTY Keyboard Come From?: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/origins-qwerty-keyboard-typewriter-180982726/ 🏰 The Opening of a New Virtual Holocaust Museum in Fortnite Has Been Delayed After White-Supremacist Nick Fuentes Rallied Antisemites to Attack It: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nick-fuentes-attacks-holocaust-museum-fortnite-2347520 🏰 So unreal — Amanda Kramer on the effect of AI on hyper-real cinema: https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/amanda-kramer-ai-transforming-hyper-real-cinema