Deep Sea Diving on Amazon

Free
Join this interactive workshop to shine a light on the politics of Amazon's algorithm.
DIVING INSTRUCTORELAN KIDERMAN-ULLENDORFF
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Wednesday, Jul 13, 2022

10:00 pm12:00 am UTC

Hosted virtually on Zoom
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  • Green dumpster, with spray painted white car on the front and a white serif all caps text, reading "flattened cardboard only"
  • mounds of amazon labeled cardboard boxes with clear plastic bags around them
  • person climbing into a dumpster from the side, in the evening
  • collage with person diving into ocean postcard, whale sticker, and other stickers and emojis with figma cursors, made on a cutting mat with orange background on black widescreen
DIVING INSTRUCTORELAN KIDERMAN-ULLENDORFF
Date icon

Wednesday, Jul 13, 2022

10:00 pm12:00 am UTC

Hosted virtually on Zoom
Be a PAL to save 10%
This item could not be added to your cart.

The internet is a vast expanse, full of endless treasures, glimpses of difference, and the messiness of being human—but so often we only get to skim the bubbles that rise to the top, as filtered through algorithmic popularity contests or the business models and ideologies of megaplatforms. In this workshop, you'll plunge the deepest darkest depths of Amazon to unearth what lies beneath the surface: the deleted, unread, maligned, and ignored.

Think of it as trivia night with no wrong answers, or like a creative internet scavenger hunt, or an escape room in which the only thing you’re trying to escape is The Algorithm.

You’ll be sorted into teams, and over the course of two hours, your team will complete a set of challenges. You may be led through internet trapdoors towards unexpected posts. Or you may be tasked with collaborating to turn what you find into mini artworks—collages, poems, napkin drawings. You may find yourself scrambling through your home to take a photo, or texting a link to your mom.

It will be silly, subversive, collaborative, and most importantly, fun.

When it's all said and done we’ll talk about what we learned, show off what we made, and finish off the day with water between our toes.

Sound weird? Intriguing? Confusing? The good news is, you don't need to understand anything ahead of time or have any prior diving experience. Just bring an open laptop and an open mind and you're sure to have a good time.

We’ll assign everyone to a team when they arrive, but you may also join as a team (3–6 people recommended).


 

2 hours
Amazon Prime Day
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
6–8pm EDT / 3–5pm PDT / 11–1am BST


 

What to Bring

- Curiosity
- A computer that can run Figjam

Instructor Bio


Elan is a Pittsburgh-based designer and educator currently leading the product team at a nonprofit criminal justice news organization called The Marshall Project and teaching design at Chatham University. Elan runs a pop-up design studio that funnels its profits to mutual aid projects, and obsesses over the least visited corners of the internet in the Deep Sea Diving newsletter.


Donations Optional

Choose to pay the amount you can afford—or sign up for free. Your donation will support Index programming and allow us to compensate Elan. We appreciate your support!

See also