Digital profiling is the process of gathering and analyzing information that exists online about an individual. Platforms who provide services always have control of this powerful tool. As a result, I used Twitter API as the principle medium to conduct 'digital profiling' as a third party. The visual identity of the new digital profile is not an ads interest list anymore, but a graph that stores personal information that could be used as an avatar. On top of the new visual identity, I speculated several possible applications of the new visual outcome. The idea put forward in this thesis is that shifting the purpose of digital profiling toward being human-centered rather than advertising-driven may draw worthwhile arguments about the practicality and policy issues. This thesis is a speculative design project, an avatar design project, a UX design project, a generative design project, and an information design project. My point is multiple mediums to demonstrate my future vision or wish for this technology and propose a mutually beneficial strategy for tech companies.

Generate your mimesis

Mimesis 1.0



Mimesis 1.0 is a website that conducts digital profiling as a third party. Twitter is the data source platform. In the 'Generate your Mimesis' section, input the Twitter ID and Count to generate more Mimesis 1.0 profile. There is an option to upload the new profile to Twitter: Mimesis.

 

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Mimesis website



Mimesis is a website that has listed all design outcomes and speculations of the Mimesis applications.

 

Essays

The close future of digital profiling

The spiral and the loop

 

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Twitter

Designer

Yangyang Ding

 

Developer

Yangyang Ding

Benjamin Vu

 

Thesis Committee

Agatha Haines

Minkyoung Kim

Nic Schumann


 

RISD Grad Show 2020

Departments