Re:search

Although Snowden’s revelations have opened users’ eyes to the Five Eyes and state surveillance of citizens, Google’s proprietary black box remains closed. Operating as an ‘increasing invisible information infrastructure’  (Haider & Sundin, 2019), it is sometimes difficult to discern paid advertising from ‘organic’ search results, with most users staying above the ‘fold’  (Introna 2016, Lewandowski 2017).

Nowadays, people ‘ubiquitously google’  (Ridgway 2021; 2023), yet the actors and dynamics of search is changing with the uptake of ‘generative artificial intelligence’, such as machine-leaning Large Language Models (LLMs) a.k.a. chatbots, which are now providing one answer to all queries or an overview, instead of ranked hyperlinks. Transient as well as opaque, what are the knowledge infrastructures determining search results, how can they be researched and better understood?

This interdisciplinary research strand addresses digital citizenship by investigating the ethics and politics of search infrastructures and, more specifically, open source and alternatives to prevailing search hegemonies. Material artifacts created by people, ‘infrastructures’ have physical and pragmatics properties, including telephone towers, GPS satellite systems and undersea internet cables that often appear invisible until they break down (Starr 1999). ‘Searching’ is the action of finding information, nowadays one of the most common online user activities and an important element in the development of the web and artificial intelligence. Knowledge Infrastructures of Searching combines these two words to focus on seeking information, which encompasses the environmental impact of telecommunication networks and data centres—the hardware that enables the transfer of data, as well as databases and search applications—the software that processes queries and provides search results.

Upcoming

WORKSHOP: Re:search—Comparing, critiquing and contemplating search results
Saturday, November 30th 2024 from 12.00 to 15.00 @ DOKK1
Sign up for the workshop here! There's no charge ...

Situated at the interstices of Feminist STS, critical data studies, AI and web search, this research strand addresses digital citizenship by investigating the ethics and politics of search infrastructures and, more specifically, open source and alternatives to prevailing search hegemonies. The project explores alternatives in search knowledge production through ethical and technical explorations, locally in Aarhus with a citizen engagement workshop, in Herning (BSS) with the FOSS research group and in two European projects (Open Web Index and NGI Search).

Material artifacts created by people, ‘infrastructures’ have physical and pragmatics properties, including telephone towers, GPS satellite systems and undersea internet cables that often appear invisible until they break down (Starr 1999). ‘Searching’ is the action of finding information, nowadays one of the most common online user activities and an important element in the development of the web and artificial intelligence. Knowledge Infrastructures of Searching combines these two words to focus on seeking information, which encompasses the environmental impact of telecommunication networks and data centres––the hardware that enables the transfer of data, as well as databases and search applications––the software that processes queries and provides search results.

Nowadays, people ‘ubiquitously google’ (Ridgway 2021; 2023) yet the actors and dynamics of search is changing with the uptake of ‘generative artificial intelligence’, such as machine-leaning Large Language Models (LLMs) a.k.a. chatbots, which are now providing one answer to all queries or an overview, instead of ranked hyperlinks. Over the course of the last two years, the research strand has followed novel developments within internet search infrastructures, designing users’ agentic capabilities when searching online through public workshops in Aarhus and abroad (HASTAC), in addition to teaching modules in the classroom at AU. Recent outcomes include a peer-reviewed article ‘Screenshotting partial perspectives- the case of Danish mink in Google search results,’ in JASIST (Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology) Special Issue ‘Healthier Information Ecosystems’ (2024).

Together with Code&Share[ ] and artist/programmer Anders Visti, a forthcoming (November 30th) public workshop entitled ‘Re:search - Comparing, critiquing and contemplating search results’ at DOKK1 in Aarhus will launch a hybrid interface/website for search knowledge production. This afternoon event will help participants visualise, compare and interpret their search results (data) from diverse browsers/engines/chatbots, thereby promoting data/digital literacy as well as archiving the web.

Contact

reneeridgway(a)protonmail.com
info(a)andersvisti.dk