An installation that introduces a counter-acting lexicon for the ‘Terms of Service’
Digitally textured everyday is controlled by Terms of Service agreements. They set the rules of the game serving to the benefit of technology companies by tapping into the power of words. They define who is who, and who can do what and what not. Through these tactics, they make a specific type of world for us to live in and control our sense of being online and offline.
Asking how we can imagine alternatives to this opressive form of relating to technology, in our artistic design research practice, we explore how we can form and sustain eco-social contracts that care for humans and non-humans. We propose we should start with grounding ourselves in alternative words to make alternative worlds.
Through a counter-acting lexicon for the Terms of Service, we attempt to change the conversation for imagining eco-social contracts. Using the letters of ‘eco-social contracts’ as a starting point, we propose 18 concepts to think with humans and nonhumans rather than only with corporations. How about ‘E’ for ‘entanglement, ‘C’ for ‘care’, ‘N’ for ‘negotiation’? As a conversation starter to imagine eco-social contracts, we present these words as an installation accompanied with lexicon-zines to take with.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 955990. It is a PhD project at Umeå Institute of Design.
This project was initially exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2024. This is the first time it is exhibited in Sweden.
