The project I selected is “X Degrees of Separation” by GCI. The project uses Machine Learning techniques to analyze the visual features of artworks allowing X Degrees of Separation to find pathways between any two artifacts, connecting the two through a chain of artworks.

However, the connection network created by machine learning is only based on finding the surface or visual similarities between the artifacts from its massive database. Also, most important, machine learning needs people to manually correct their data tagging. We, the user enjoying using the service provided by google every single day and helping google to train their machine learning service without even realizing it.

While we see the machine generator provide us with a series of quick and fun images, we never think that we are actually the person who trained the system by using google’s other services. The absence of logic indicates that machine learning cut off the process of labor in finding the connection between each link.

I parodied the unseen labor behind our daily mouse-clicking through a small VR game. By reproducing a person’s daily life in three spatial scenarios that require clicking the “reCaptcha” robot test. Using Unity and Rhino building out 3D space and then export them to a VR explorable space. This game draws attention to routinized daily life in a modern world and to our inseparable relationship with technology, encouraging players to reflect on what exactly distinguishes us, humans, from bots.