This document summarizes a guest lecture given at Aarhus University on February 13, 2014. It discusses the concept of "black boxes" in technology like Facebook, and how code and algorithms shape user representations and political processes in opaque ways. It also describes the "Brother Cream Cat" project, which augments browsing on Facebook through a browser add-on, and discusses how coding practices can be viewed as ideological.

1. The Likes of Brother Cream Cat
Guest Lecture @ Aarhus University
13.Feb.2014

2. //introducDon
Winnie Soon (hHp://siusoon.com/)
‐HK‐

3. // The Likes of Brother Cream Cat

4. Discussion Dme
// black box (Latour, 1999)
“Facebook is a black box (Latour, 1999), and therefore it is
difficult to examine some of the opaque techniques at the
informaDonal level that parDcipate in shaping specific
representaDons of users and poliDcal processes.”
(Langlous, Elmer, McKelvey, Devereaux: 424)

5. // black box (Latour, 1999)
‘blackboxing’ as “the way scienDfic and
technical work is made invisible by its
own success. When a machine runs
efficiently, when a maHer of fact is
seHled, one need focus only on its inputs
and outputs and not on its internal
complexity. Thus, paradoxically, the more
science and technology succeed, the
more opaque and obscure they become.”
(Latour 1999, my emphasis)

6. // Monitoring in Facebook
Track your cursor on screen
News here: hHp://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/10/30/facebook‐considers‐vast‐increase‐in‐data‐collecDon/tab/comments/

7. // great things
“I’m really looking forward to this change as it takes our
already incredibly aggressive release process and doubles
down on it, offering us twice the opportunity to ship great
things. It’s exciDng and I think it crushes what anyone else of
our size and impact is doing. Ship early and ship twice as
oden”
(Chunk Rossi, an engineer from Facebook Inc)
hHps://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook‐engineering/ship‐early‐and‐ship‐twice‐as‐oden/10150985860363920

8. // criDcal code studies
“code itself is a cultural text worthy of analysis and
rich with possibiliDes for interpretaDon”
(Marino 2006)

9. // about Brother Cream Cat
Video: hHp://www.youtube.com/
watch?
v=Vj5BG7DyTmk&list=PLbPSeb4gHXV
qSik8exGyjVu7cxmEL9md3#t=185

10. // The likes of Brother Cream Cat
The Power of ‘likes’
Go to: hHp://www.thelikesoqrothercreamcat.net/

11. // installaDon & discussion
Go to: hHp://www.thelikesoqrothercreamcat.net/
and read the text
1/ Download Firefox browser
2/ Download Greasemonkey
3/ Download the add‐on
4/ Login to Facebook and browse around
5/ Find the brother cream cat fans page
What is augmented
browsing? And how it
can be experienced in
this work?

12. // aestheDcs programming
hHp://userscripts.org/scripts/review/176963
‐ Javascript ‐> concept of source code > coding pracDces
‐ Working with FB data ‐> view Inspect element
Document Object Model

13. // aestheDcs programming: discussion
hHp://userscripts.org/scripts/review/176963
Other than blocks of funcDons, what else do you see /
feel/ experience in the source code?

14. // code
Coding is an ideological pracDces
hHp://sensingstreetcats.blogspot.hk/

15. // other add‐on pracDces
1/ file format: xxx.user.js
2/ start coding with an editor (e.g textWrangler)
3/ start our hello world program
4/ save file and drag to your firefox browser ‐> restart browser

16. // other add‐on pracDces
More here … hHp://www.tuxradar.com/content/greasemonkey‐beginners

17. Image ref:
• Hp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Hong_Kong_de_noche.jpg
h
• Hp://www.telegraph.co.uk/incoming/arDcle54082.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/hk‐city.jpg
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• Hp://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3F1TK_nykytaideHa‐black‐box?guid=954afcq‐ae02‐44ed‐
h
bb7f‐6f058d42833a
• Hp://staDc.rappler.com/images/wrap‐Facebook‐track‐cursor‐screen‐11012013‐ver2.jpg
h
• Hp://www.kiHyarmy.com/brother‐cream‐the‐puss‐in‐books/
h
• Hp://www.w3schools.com/js/pic_htmltree.gif
h