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Web-Crawler Report

An algorithmic real-time media installation at Café Exchange

Installation by Martin Kusch (Department of Digital Art, University of Applied Arts Vienna)

The information on the Internet is continuously classified and grouped into filter bubbles by machine algorithmic monitoring of user behavior. In closed echo chambers, the filtered media information is distributed to groups of like-minded people and few – but massively posted – topics tend to monopolize most of the available attention on the net.

With the media installation ‘Web-Crawler Report’, heterogeneous content is combined and presented to the viewer in a uniform format based on selected terms and keywords from the Internet.

The specially designed web crawler algorithm searches the Internet in real time and continuously updates the material found. The headlines, images and texts come from selected information sources (websites) from different subject areas such as: activism, health, innovation, research, art, culture, politics or the environment.

Concept / idea: Gerald Bast, Martin Kusch
Artistic direction / realization: Martin Kusch
Visual Design and Programming: Marian Essl
Web Crawler Programming: Sebastien Gravel
Technical installation: Johannes Hucek

A production of the Fulldome/VR & AR Lab, Department of Digital Art, University of Applied Arts, Vienna