POV: Time To Influence Your Targeted Ads

Are your devices listening to you? This question, while often dismissed as an urban myth, has deeply influenced how we perceive and interact with algorithmic systems. The artist uses this ambiguity as a starting point for a collective experiment in which participants are encouraged to disrupt their phones’ usual flow of suggested content, rewriting their algorithmic realities to explore new narratives and potential futures.

In this workshop, artist and social designer Ginevra Petrozzi invites participants to explore the intersection of magical thinking and surveillance technologies. She draws inspiration from Italy’s folkloric traditions and heritage, reviving knowledge that was preserved in secret and passed down clandestinely through generations of women. 

Central to the workshop is the collaborative creation of a “Perfect Futures” script—an exercise in crafting counter-narratives that stand in contrast to the prepackaged stories curated by our devices. Participants will work with Petrozzi to transform these scripts into a form of digital enchantment, playfully subverting the predictive logic of algorithms through whispered incantations. The workshop will culminate in a collective performance, where the “Perfect Futures” are recited as a “spell” into participants’ devices, mirroring a popular TikTok trend that involves whispering keywords and phrases into an unguarded phone to influence its algorithm.

In this participatory experience, the artist encourages participants to rethink their relationship with technology, experimenting with the idea that language and intention might hold the power to enchant not only the digital sphere but also our collective futures.

Registrations for this event are closed.