\PlaceFramedImage{imagetracer.jpg}{Images and data accumulate into layers as the query is repeated over time} 
\PlaceFramedImage{shmoogle.jpg}{In one click, Google hierarchy crumbles down} 

\AuthorStyle{Tsila Hassine}

\licenseStyle{Free Art License}

\Eng{\Title{Shmoogle and Tracer}

What is Shmoogle? Shmoogle is a Google randomizer. In one click, Google
hierarchy crumbles down. Results that were usually exiled to pages
beyond user attention get their \quote{15 seconds of PageRank fame}. While
also being a useful tool for internet research, Shmoogle is a comment,
a constant reminder that the Google order is not necessarily \quote{the good
order}, and that sometimes chaos is more revealing than order. While
Google serves the users with information ready for immediate
consumption, Shmoogle forces its users to scroll down and make their
own choices.
If Google is a search engine, then Shmoogle is a research engine.
\blank
In Image Tracer, order is important. Image Tracer is a collaboration
between artist group De Geuzen and myself. Tracer was born out of our
mutual interest in the traces images leave behind them on their
networked paths. In Tracer images and data accumulate into layers as
the query is repeated over time. Boundaries between image and data are
blurred further as the image is deliberately reduced to thumbnail size,
and emphasis is placed on the image's context, the neighbouring images,
and the metadata related to that image. Image Tracer builds up an
archive of juxtaposed snapshots of the web. As these layers accumulate,
patterns and processes reveal themselves, and trace a historiography in
the making.}