Abstract

Keywords: Collective Consciousness Social Media, Augmented Reality Big Data, Knowledge systems and thought, Generative Digital Art, Digital Narratives

The paper discusses the ‘What We Think About When We Think About…” project which uses real-time searches of large data sets produced by social media systems to permit the visualization of collective thought in real-time. It begins by briefly exploring the relationship between technology and those who make and use it and suggests that digital technology affects the ways modern humans think, thought-patterns which the examination of social media data can reveal. The operation of the project software is examined in some detail and two areas of application in augmented and virtual realities are discussed.

• Ian Willcock is a digital artist, researcher and lecturer in interactive media and live performance, and leads the taught postgraduate provision in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. His musical, multimedia and digital-performance pieces have been presented internationally and he has received many prizes and scholarships. Several of his pieces are published and his work is available on commercial recordings. He has collaborated on a number of large-scale digital performance and mixed-media installation projects and in 2012, completed his doctorate in Multimedia and Live Performance at De Montfort University. His research interests include immersive experience design, contemporary creative digital practice and media production methodologies.

Full text (PDF) p. 276-281