This paper describes a workshop conducted as part of practice-based research that aims at critiquing online tracking algorithms commonly found in everyday web environments. The workshop introduced participants to online tracking algorithms using a series of choreographic exercises that informed a discussion on the topic and strategies to counteract data-driven extractivist technologies. We analysed the outcomes of our workshop and showed that it allowed individuals to become more aware of their lack of agency over data harvesting and its use by digital services, and enabled them to develop strategies for reclaiming agency over their personal data. We discuss how the choreographic approach used in the workshop contributes to engaging people in a critical examination of online tracking in their everyday lives and to inspire forms of countering extractive algorithmic systems. Our paper contributes empirical insights on how choreography can be used to raise awareness of data tracking online.

Human-Computer Counter-Choreographies is an artistic research project that combines critical design, choreography and embodied sense-making with data tracking. The project has evolved into various formats such as workshops, a live-coding performance piece, web-based tools and artworks. In this talk, Joana Chicau will introduce the motivations behind the project and how it has impacted audiences by raising awareness of data tracking. She will also demo a custom version of the open-source DuckDuckGo privacy extension which unveils online tracking algorithms through audio and visual feedback.

We invite technology practitioners to join us in the collaborative exploration of discomfort associated with technology in the age of surveillance capitalism. With the help of body-based exercises inspired by choreography we will articulate the discomforts of living and designing with extractivist technology. Our studio is aimed at technology practitioners of a broad range of expertise who have experienced discomfort in relation to data-driven extractivist systems. In the first part of the studio participants will share their experiences of resisting such systems both as users and creators of technology. In the second part, participants will engage in an ideation session to propose forms of countering existing technologies. Embodied methods and choreographic approaches will be used for making digital discomfort tangible and for guiding the exploration of the topics at stake. As an outcome, participants will collectively design a toolbox to conceptualise discomfort in a tangible, embodied way, and form a network to continue discuss these matters post-studio in an online community discussion group.