Data Mapping of 2016 US Presidential Election Twitter Activity
Weidong Yang, Jiayi Young and Shih-Wen Young / USA
University of California, Davis
jiayiyoung.net
The proposed installation transforms the 2016 United States Presidential Election data into a large-scale immersive environment to provoke thought as to how social media assumes form and dominates the shaping of the future of a nation. By mapping election data into flickering lights, ticking sounds, and the exchange of fluid between IV bags, the installation recounts Twitter activates on the topic from February 2016 to the election date of November 8, 2016. It exposes the inner mechanisms of a world where true human tweets and tweets generated by Twitter Bots mutually influence each other and propagate inseparably as a combined voice. The installation allows the examination of the machine world infiltration that shifted the generative entropic propagation of social media influence on this US election, and provides a physical space for contemplating the significant challenges social media post in our understanding of the social fabric and the radical transformation of the ways in which we now relate to each other.