The Control of Data
For my close reading project, I chose to focus on Odds Against Tomorrow and what it tries to tell us about data. The argument that I came up with makes the point that the novel tells us that we are a population that is ultimately governed by data. The book shows us how we obsess over data, its collection, how it exerts control over us, how it drives us, and how it ultimately decides our future. Odds Against Tomorrow does all of these things throughout its three main sections and it does so while maintaining a gripping story.
When deciding what artifact I should create to emphasize this argument, I thought about what mediums already exhibit a demand for much attention from us. I quickly became attached to the idea of a mobile application. Fundamentally, apps are meant to convey data in a presentable and easily digestible manner. So, I prototyped and described an app that could present a user with imminent dangers that surround them because not everyone is as math-brained as Mitchell Zukor. While quite infeasible, if such a thing were to be conceived in our world, it would undoubtedly gain the attention of the population of smartphone users. In this way, it would quite visibly demonstrate the power that data has over us, our thoughts, and our plans.
Link to Part Two Description: here