Generative moving image installation
This piece was exhibited at the Koppel Project's ANNEX space as part of Phreaking Collective's second show, Does Cloud Compute (ever) Precipitate?
Joy converts gallery visitors into search queries for intimate content. Computer vision tracks bodies as they move through space, encoding these behaviors into semantic vectors that match fragments of jerk-off instruction videos. A neural network learns which clips engage visitors most, adapting its selections to maximize attention.
A more detailed description of the work and a technical diagram are available here.
Joy is an attempt to investigate a few aspects of what people are starting to call the 'Goon Economy': networked dissemination of content in which sexual suggestion is leveraged to maximise engagement, setting off a chain reaction of desire and sexuality rerouted and amplified through a matrix of algorithmic interpretation and recommendation.
The installation also includes Look Me in the Eyes Right Fucking Now and Comfort Me, videos compiled from TikTok "eye contact challenges" - content designed to circumvent platform censorship while still triggering embodied responses in human viewers. These performers optimize for algorithmic distribution by producing statistically similar content that exploits the smartphone's material form: held in one hand, demanding sustained visual attention while leaving the body otherwise unoccupied. The device itself becomes infrastructure for masturbatory viewing, a fact recommendation systems exploit by privileging content that generates passive, extended watch time.