Rachel Ellenbogen

Algorithmic radicalization is the idea that algorithms used by large tech and social media companies are leading people down digital rabbit holes. These algorithms control what we see and when we see it, somewhat like the figure of Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984. The phenomenon of having someone see inside your head reminded me of my time growing up in the Catholic church, when I believed that a higher power could read my thoughts. The church’s use of uniforms for students in church schools and for priests, designed to evoke a group mindset, inspired me to use athletic and school uniforms for the silhouettes. I decorated the material with hand embroidery, a manual technique, to create original images inspired by stained-glass windows and mosaics. These images contrast sharply with the digital themes and concepts that I explore, drawn from sources such as AI-generated art, Surrealism, 1984, science fiction films and TV, the phenomenon of uniformity, and my own experiences with social media platforms. Through the uniforms and stained-glass windows I comment on the hold tech algorithms have on our minds and the cultlike behavior around social media, which together the give rise to the “church of social media.”