A taste of machine: exploring algorithmic curations of (in)visibility on digital platforms
Navn på bevillingshaver
Anna Helene Kvist Møller
Titel
PhD fellow
Institution
University of Milan
Beløb
DKK 2,635,456
År
2025
Bevillingstype
Internationalisation Fellowships
Hvad?
What we see and who we connect with on social media is shaped by algorithmic curation. However, this curation is never innocent. This project investigates how the subtle signs of taste in visual content become thresholds for algorithms to control the (in)visibility of users across different geopolitical and cultural contexts.
Hvorfor?
The rise of social media has fundamentally transformed how we communicate and connect. Since algorithms control the visibility of users and their content, uncovering the underlying dynamics that may shape and skew access to public conversation and participation is important to reduce inequality and ensure fairness across digital landscapes.
Hvordan?
This project combines computational analysis and ethnographic methods to investigate large-scale image datasets from Instagram and TikTok, focusing on data from both the Global North and South. It examines how taste – expressed through images and short videos – circulate among users, aiming to uncover the algorithmic thresholds that control visibility and invisibility across these platforms.