‘Sport! The Algorithmic Circuit’ is a game for strategic interventions into the ebbs and flows of surveillance and profiling using personal devices and social media. Taking action beyond the extreme positions of comfortable lethargy or paranoid paralysis “Sport! The Algorithmic Circuit” can be a critical and collaborative investigation of surveillance algorithms. Play Sport! The Algorithmic Circuit on your apps and phones!
Sport! was shown at the 4S conference in New Orleans (2019) and at the GameOn Festival in Buenos Aires (2019).
Made in collaboration with Amani Naseem.
GETTING STARTED
This is a game where you play with algorithms for Instagram so you will need to have access to an Instagram account and a messaging app
Play the game alone or competitively (1 – 100+ players)
HOW TO PLAY
1. Add everyone to a group chat
2. Choose a topic (object or subject) and deliberately work the algorithms of your social media to show you ads related to it.
3. Choose someone to keep the score.Decide on how long the game will last (hours? days? months?)
4. One person declares a challenge by choosing a topic, for example: ‘obsidian’, ‘Sudan’, ‘baby monitor’, ‘overcoat’, ‘strawberries’, or ‘Mario Party’
5. Everyone uses all their online media to make Instagram show them ads related to the declared topic. Take advantage of social media having access to mics, cameras, location, photos, etc. Be creative, all tricks are allowed
6. If you succeed in getting Instagram to show you a related ad, take a screenshot, and post it to the chat. The first player to generate and spot an ad scores 20 points!
7. A different person (not the winner) then chooses the next challenge and the game continues
The player with the most points when time runs out wins the game!
Remember that you can work the algorithms whenever you are near a smartphone.
Pdf of the rules here. You can print the pdf on both sides to make them into beautiful fliers.