The illusion of community is a research project conducted for the purposes of my MA Thesis in Critical Inquiry Lab, at Design Academy Eindhoven.

The research was developed by the guidance of Patricia Reed, Saskia van Stein and Lua Vollard, and influenced by the work of the people massively referenced in the essay. You’re going to read a lot of Geert Lovink, and Wendy Chun among others.

Watch my video lecture  here.

The text offers a thorough analysis of the subject. It is the first of many iterations of my thesis, and it consists of 3 main areas of investigation – the platform, the community, and the illusion.

Literary and visual analysis have had a great impact developing the thesis.Throughout the different chapters, you can choose how and when to interact with my references of all kinds.

The images used in this column throughout the essay, are screenshots from my own Instagram account.
These screenshots can be perceived as indexical, offering a particular level of “transparency” between user and algorithm. It is a clear visual indication of the curated content reaching each user, depending on the received data.
The screenshots I have captured, intent to question the current understanding of user’s agency in social media platforms, by “owning” the content that is mine, and at the same time it’s not.