## ****Data Distance****: Me by Other by Me #### by Lasse Utoft --- ### **Tools: Aleph-Image (CLIP x DALL-E)** * ##### a (Jupyter) notebook that uses DALL-E's decoder and CLIP to generate images from text * > ##### I was afraid that not a single thing on earth would ever again surprise me. (Jorge Luis Borges) * ##### Data as a way of seeing "it all" - youself, everything and everyone. ---  ##### 4 different inputs, 6 different outputs. --- * ###### The input for the generaton of images are known to me. * ###### The decoding of text and encoding of images are black-boxed (for me). * ###### The algorithm iterates over the input to improve its output. * ###### The distance simultaneously becomes farther and shorter to my actual body and data body. * ###### I can (weirdly) relate to myself in these images. * ###### Three levels of interpretations/translations. (of the self, of the input, of the output) --- > ###### "**The digital subject** is neither necessarily an extension of the human into digital networks (it is not a self), nor a representation of the I, but **comes into being at a distance between the living being and the data pointers, profiles, models, and active propositions that it may prompt.** [...] There is no given or natural factuality or evidentiality in digital subjects." (Goriunova 2019, p. 142) * ###### Distance of the Data Subject and the Subject === Subjective. * ###### Programming and related skills can help people understand the process and of datafication and thus the distance between their selves. * ###### Some people might relate more or less to their data self (distance in a sense of reflexivity) ---