fyp broken

fyp broken (2024), fyp short for “For You Page” on TikTok, speaks of the alienating moment when the reinforcement learning algorithm of TikTok no longer reflects what you have so precisely taught it about yourself, refuses to recognise your individual interests and preferences and for some time forgets everything about you. For You Pages break in moments when the platform tests its new algorithm and pushes new content on its users, seeing if they will respond positively towards it. This glitch – a moment of self-destruction orchestrated by the platform itself – results in finite feeds full of content that users have already seen and liked, triggering an invisible tug and pull between the users and developers of the algorithm, played out by one side viewing, scrolling, liking and pressing the “not interested” button and by the other through the pushing of specific content. Inspired by the presence of CD bird scarers in public and residential areas, the diy recycled CD mobile – composed of CDs, CD-Roms, an emergency blanket and plastic cable covers – is based on a craft idea found on Pinterest and makes reference to kinetic art. As a structure, holding together separate moving parts, it tries to enact the construction of a TikTok feed where videos are connected to each other, lined up in a certain order, defined by the similarity of their metadata, user activity on the app and the user’s account settings. The printed text elements are cut outs from screenshots of videos labeled with #fypbroken where users describe their troubles and share their frustrations with their broken fyp and look for mutual support and resonance with others. All material used in this installation is recycled, used, leftover, and surplus materials or donated to me by friends. This installation was made site-specifically for ring-ring Kunstraum in Zürich, an off-space located in a repurposed Telephone cabin.