Artist Statement

Today, we have access to information delivered over the Internet from the most remote parts of the world. As the use of the Internet increases, so does the use of search engines as the tool to access on-line information. We are becoming informed, constructing meaning, and understanding the world based on the results retrieved by search engines. SEARCH Behind the Scenes is an interactive-installation, which invites the participant to think from a critical perspective about how this technology influences our lives and its implication in our understanding of today’s world. It invites the visitor to conduct an on-line search; instead of retrieving the search engines’ results showing them on the computer screen, this time the search is simultaneously conducted by two search engines, and two computer monitors start a text-based conversation about their results.
The conversation is a constructed narrative generated by the real results retrieved by different search engines such as Google, Bing (using the results snippets) and on my own research on how search engines work. The dialogue between the different search engines has a human touch, allowing the visitor to engage with the conversation, and feel that the two monitors “are like friends having a conversation” By comparing their results and discussing why they are, or not, different, the conversation reveals different aspects of how search engines are curating our results, questioning their objectivity, and exposing a phenomenon that is not always visible to us. SEARCH Behind the Scenes focuses on the relation between the search engines and the users. How the search engines don’t expose their results selection criteria and rest on the ignorance of the web user about computer algorithms, and how we, as Internet users, have attributed objectivity to the search engines’ results without understanding how they are being selected, how they really work. Some of the reactions of the visitors were: “we are not getting the same things back…” and “that information we received over the Internet is biased…” These reactions allow us to envision the possible next steps of this project, which involve a more in depth analyzes of the patterns found in the results retrieved by search engines, that would allow visitors to develop counteroffensive strategies in their mode of searching. catalinacortazar.com/blog/?p=993

• Catalina Cortazar Valdes, Chile/USA. In July 2013 I joined the School of Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile as an Assistant Adjunctive Professor in the area of Design in Engineering – DiLab. I´ve been coordinating and teaching the Engineering Challenges course, the Visual Thinking course, and since July 2015 I´ve been the Director of the Fabrication Laboratory FabLabUC. After graduating from Civil Engineering I worked for several years as structural designer. I moved to New York and after completing a Master’s degree in Media Studies, I did art video editing, animation, and web design & development. Because of my interest in technology as a tool to communicate and express collective feelings, I decided to return to school and pursue the MFA in Design and Technology @ Parsons The New School for Design. During these two years I focused on creative coding and physical computing. My interest in the interaction between engineering and interactive design comes from my belief that they are a great tool to design interactive systems that can create awareness and positive changes in today’s world. catalinacortazar.com/blog