Alexis Brown, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Enculturation: http://enculturation.net/the-algo-numeric-daughter
(Published: September 27, 2012)
Click this image to read Alexis Brown's "Algo-Numeric Daughter"
This comic attempts to allegorize the relationship between myself and my algo-numeric double. I examined the effects of orality, literacy, and numeracy in the context of familial relations, with each character drawn directly from the results of my signature, or the results that a Google search of my name generated. I wanted to examine whether my parents could legitimately connect with me through my algo-numeric double. For instance, what is the relation between me and my algo-numeric double, and how much control over it do I have? Does it represent some facet of me, or has it been so abstracted by numeracy that the information connected to my name now bears almost no connection to me at all? And in an age where information now exists in a realm of its own, could my algo-numeric double in some sense replace me? Could it be manipulated by others through algorithms to create some better version of myself?
This project appealed to me in part because it was very different than my usual work in the English department. Instead of implementing theoretical concepts to analyze literature, I used them to provide framework for what might almost be termed creative writing. At the same time, this project also made the theories of Scott McCloud, Eric Havelock, and others more personal—I found myself examining the connections between these theories and my life.