Sara Levarato
Sara employs a research-based and critical design approach into her work, often incorporating 3D CGI elements. Fascinated by the internalization of technological processes within late capitalism, she delves into how individuals are interpreted and represented through datafication and optimization. Her ongoing project delves into hyper-customization processes and the connection of personal data to fuel live simulations. Utilizing photogrammetry techniques, she crafts digital sculptures, symbolizing the fragmented nature of digital identities. Uncertain about the future of these technologies, Sara holds hope that advocacy for digital rights and governmental regulations could sculpt a more transparent and accountable digital landscape.
Hello Sara, thank you for accepting this interview. Let’s start by introducing who you are and what you do.
Hello! Thank you very much for this interview. I am a visual artist and communication designer from Italy, currently based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In my practice, I employ a research-based and critical design approach to craft visual narratives. My works often incorporate elements of 3D CGI and revolve thematically around the internalization of technological processes within the late capitalist landscape. I am particularly interested in how individuals are subjected to interpretation, labeling, and representation through datafication and optimization.
In recent months, I have begun teaching moving images at HKU (Utrecht) and as a teaching assistant in the art course at the Free University of Bolzano/Bozen. So, I suppose I should also start considering this new role of educator 😁
What are you working on these days? What are you reading?
Recently I've been considering hyper-customization processes as a medium for worldbuilding. I'm still in the research phase, but I'm considering connecting my daily personal data to fuel a live simulation running on a gaming program like Unreal Engine.
I have just started reading Uncreative Writing by Kenneth Goldsmith, and I am in the middle of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
You studied in the Netherlands and currently live between IT and NL. How was studying in The Netherlands compared to Italy? Every time an artist or a student asks me for recommendations on where to study or where to live, I often recommend The Netherlands because of the art academies, the institutions, the network, even thought the food is bad and the weather is even worse :) Am I wrong in pushing creatives to The Netherlands? What’s your experience?
For my bachelor's degree, I studied design at the Free University of Bolzano, and I graduated with a MA in Information Design from the Design Academy in Eindhoven. I believe that each university, within both Italy and the Netherlands, has its own philosophy and methods. In general, however, I would say that in Italy design is taught with a very humanistic and historical approach, taking into account the tradition built by the great masters. Design works within the functional, problem-solving area, and is often considered separate and distinct from art. In the Netherlands, there is a strong emphasis on the individual practice and the creation of personal methodologies, processes, and aesthetic languages. The distinction between design and art is much more subtle and, if boundaries are drawn, it is usually to cross them and widen the field rather than to close it.
I think the advice to live in the Netherlands is still very valid because there is a lot of funding for culture (which hopefully will continue to exist in light of the recent election results), numerous grants and opportunities for artistic residencies. Having more opportunities to be supported financially as an artist obviously makes a huge difference when thinking about where to live. It is a very international and multicultural country which is one of the aspects I value the most. Unfortunately, with the housing crisis I think it is becoming a privilege (and a matter of luck) to be able to find an accommodation to study or work here. The most difficult thing, though, is learning the language. Dutch is quite difficult! (for Italians at least haha)
Jumping onto your art projects, I would like to start with a quote from the intro of one of them: “There is a complete picture of my life on the internet, from my personal details obtained from social networks to the gps signal generated by carrying my iPhone, I leave traces of my existence without even realizing or being aware of it.” Please tell us more about this project.
My bachelor’s thesis focused on the construction of the subject within the online profiling process. Since then, I have continued to engage in projects heavily influenced by this topic. Online profiling entails the appropriation and analysis of users' data, culminating in the assignment of user profiles (or algorithmic identities) aimed at predicting and influencing their behaviors. For example, the targeted advertisements bombarding us daily are customized based on the profiles we are assigned. Similarly, microtargeting, commonly employed in election campaigns, operates on a similar principle.
The raw material here is our data, the traces we leave online, which are "extracted" from us, stored, and often sold, sometimes in ambiguous and opaque ways. Consequently, virtually every aspect of our lives that has a digital footprint can be quantified and transformed into valuable data. This process gives rise to a new role for us: the prosumer, blurring the traditional boundaries between producer, product, and consumer. At its core, this issue revolves around identity formation and the dynamics of power and control over this creation. Questions naturally arise: Is the data I produce truly reflective of my persona? Who owns this data? How is this data transformed into information about me? To what extent and through what mechanisms do these profiles influence my individual autonomy and self-determination?
I created the art book titled "Information Needed to Create an Entire Body" to offer a critical perspective on these processes and I hope to provoke these sorts of questions. Within the text, I divided the paragraphs to mirror the online profiling process. Through a blend of informative insights into this complex phenomenon, I intertwined a personal narrative, utilizing myself as a case study. This approach aims to juxtapose my research on the matter with a more subjective reflection and visualization of the story.
What was the inspiration, reference, for this project? And why did you choose photogrammetry as a form to digitise your body?
I would say that I started to understand the many implications and relevance of this topic while reading "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff, in which she elucidates how the business models of digital companies embody a novel mode of capitalist accumulation based upon the relentless collection and interpretation of users' data. Another important book for me is probably Byung-Chul Han's "Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power." Finally, the works, both articles and projects, by Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen. One example is "Excavating AI: The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets."
For the creation of the images, I utilized photogrammetry techniques on bodies, including my own and those of my friends. To me this specific technique resonates with the concept of the datafication of reality. Numerous images of an element are taken from various angles, which are then used to reconstruct its three-dimensional representation. While it offers the illusion of 3D spatiality and objective representation, ultimately it is a mathematical interpretation, a collage of flat and empty images. I wanted to retained a raw quality in the digital sculptures to underscore this process of "construction" and assembly. So In the final result, I left some imperfections on the surface of these elements and applied a glossy, plastic-like coating to evoke the appearance of a product one might find on a market shelf — a cheap piece of meat packaged in shiny wrapping.
The images I produced are founded on the notion of the individual as a fragmented body/data object, depicted as waste or rubbish: organic yet highly synthetic, plasticized material. From this metaphorical dump (representing Big Data), useful material emerges, a Frankenstein of information that is associated with a profile. Trapped in a perpetual loop of updates, this profile is coerced into a state of high definition and stillness, only to be thrust back into instability and subjected to new classifications, all in the pursuit of service to other companies.
I often find myself conceptualizing our relationship with technological processes through constructed and deconstructed bodies. The use of the body, or body parts, enables the creation of a striking contrast between the materiality and tangibility of our physical selves and the abstraction and immateriality of our digitized identities. I believe this dichotomy serves as a powerful starting point for prompting reflection on how our lives are shaped by the intertwining of the offline and online worlds.
What have you learnt about yourself and your body while working on this project and 3D scan?
The first time I 3D scanned my body, I was a little bit shocked by the result. I think it activated a sort of uncanny valley feeling. You see, it's a stiff digital representation, but at the same time, the resemblance to a “real” body is very accurate. I guess it has a lot to do with the novelty of the medium. It reminds me of the first audience who saw Lumiere’s movie "The Arrival of a Train"; they got scared by the image of the train coming towards them, and they ran away despite knowing it was only a movie. For me, it has been a little bit similar, in the sense that it took me some time to understand the relationship I have with that representation and what I can actually do with it.
I am very much drawn to CGI imagery. I think that working within a three-dimensional space on a flat screen has something magical in it. Having complete control, or at least the sensation of complete control, over a digital world and its elements is incredibly powerful. So, importing “myself” into it and moving, rotating, cutting, and playing with my 3d self as I please gave me a sensation of complete freedom. I used to play The Sims 2 a lot as a kid, and my favorite part was designing avatars more than the gameplay itself. Maybe my state of wonder is also very much connected to this childhood experience. For the work “+1 DAY STREAK,” I also used motion tracking on an avatar I created with Metahumans in Unreal Engine. For the purpose of the project, I created a video, so the interaction is not performed live. But I find the connection between the two bodies extremely interesting. I think this process of avatar creation and impersonation created a visual, literal link between my physical body and my digital one, which I am willing to explore further.
Are humans just the representation of their data? Are you?
I believe that there exists a significant potential for emancipation and self-creation through the process of our datafication. However, there are also inherent limitations in attempting to reduce aspects of our lives and selves to data. The subject is translated into abstractions and mathematically ‘correct’ visualizations, unleashing the power of simulation and transforming physical forms into rigid but controllable representations. As the body becomes conceptualized as a repository of information to be visualized, its digital representation becomes superimposed on the body itself.
We tend to adopt the connotations of an administrable object, connecting with the answer to the previous question, to an “avatar” with which we identify with, while simultaneously we observe it from an external, god-like perspective. This tension leads to a vision of the body as perfectly knowable, controllable, and imperishable. The body becomes externalized as a scientific object to be meticulously scrutinized and compared in every detail. Self-reflection shifts from immersion in one’s interiority to an examination of exteriority captured by quantification. Biometric systems and self-tracking devices have normalized the translation of bodies and their movements into readable texts, confirming the status of the digitized body. So I would say the physical body has been hugely replaced by the representation of the bodies, and a desire to identify with those representations.
Our faith lies in the belief that a computer simulation can render anything knowable, removing material resistance and impediments. However, an objective and neutral view of data overlooks the fact that from data extrapolation to pattern recognition, there always exists a contextual and human component, from the person who programmed the system being used to the cultural and political framework in which the system was produced and utilized.
While our data representations offer valid instruments to understand certain aspects of ourselves, I think we rely too much on them, meaning that we forget their nature of representations which should serve us instead of substitute us.
Your thesis in 2020 and consecutive works deal quite extensively with the element of online profiling… what sparked your initial interest in this investigation? Where does the fascination come from?
My fascination stems from the case of Cambridge Analytica, when the company influenced Trump's election campaign in 2016. Shortly thereafter, in Italy, Matteo Salvini (leader of La Lega) increased his consensus using what was called the "Beast." I was interested in understanding how propaganda campaigns, especially political ones, functioned on social media and how they appeared to be so effective.
One very fascinating aspect of profiling is that concerning psychographics, which is a profile built on the user’s psychological characteristics and traits such as personality, interests, values, and lifestyle choices. I started to look at some papers on the matter, and I discovered that based on post likes and profile pictures, some scientists were demonstrating with what accuracy they could predict a person’s psychological profile, and also how easy or not it would be to influence them based on the trait neuroticism. It’s very scary but it is also very interesting. From there, the question arises of how accurate these online traces are as a representation of my persona and how much a forced categorization is capable, even and especially subconsciously, of producing behavioral changes in me that actually fit into that profiling. It's a question of "transparency" - how visible and therefore readable and definable am I? The triggering question is essentially the one you posed to me earlier: Are humans just the representation of their data? Can we be completely knowable and therefore predictable?
I think the common thread of almost all my projects concerns categorization, how we are defined and how we define ourselves. I am very interested in which labels are applied to us, who decides the definition of these labels, and how many and what kind of labels exist. Simply thinking about being profiled, for example, as male or female, heterosexual or gay, already creates a certain type of binary that is linked to cultural, social, and political factors. The processes of knowledge and therefore definition are always part of relational and contextual relationships. I like James Bridle's phrase "Technology does not emerge from a vacuum" but is always linked to its creators (programmers) and their worldview.
Moving to a more recent project “A Kind of Ritual of Productivity & Control“, the title of the conclusion is “The Perfect Human”. I want to start from the end. Is there, or ever will be, a perfect human?
In my thesis A Kind of Ritual of Productivity and Control I talk about the perfect human as a connection to the 1968 short film The Perfect Human by Jørgen Leth, featuring a man and a woman referred to as such. The Danish couple performs everyday actions while a voice-over describes and guides the viewer through their daily rituals. The actions take place in a white room with no walls, the setting is abstract and decontextualized, an idea, a symbolic representation of space and time. The perfect human is described by the voiceover in a pseudo-scientific manner, as if it were a study of anthropology. Ultimately what happens in the short film is that Leth gives a voice to this perfect human who communicates his uncertainties, thus making him vulnerable, and finally ‘human’.
My question was what would happen if we imagined the same film with a ‘perfect gamified human’?
It is not difficult for me to think of these actors as avatars, representations of a presumed perfection with which we want to identify with. I perceive this desire to access a different perspective that would allow us to emotionally detach from our anxieties and urgencies, acquiring power of action or at least the illusion of such a possibility in relation to a ‘foreign’ body.
I guess no one can really tell if there will ever be a perfect human, because it all depends on the definition of perfection; it is a very subjective vision of how we should be, and the world should look. Something that is utopic for someone can be dystopic for someone else, and vice versa. Perfection is always an idea and a moral attribute more than a concrete reality; it is how humanity describes “god” or entities similar to it.
Personally, I think that emancipating our bodies from the concept of nature and essentialism towards a cyborgian view of the self can allow for many positive changes regarding our existence, starting from our conception of gender and sexuality but really affecting every aspect of society. We have always adapted our bodies since the beginning of our existence; from the moment we took a stone and made it a knife, we have changed our movements, goals, and feelings accordingly to the tools we created.
I think that if we ever arrive at a condition of perfection, we probably will not be humans anymore, but some evolved species in which everything is visible and knowable without doubts. At the moment, machines are closer to this definition than we are, so perhaps that is why we often consider them objective, impartial, and right, as a God would be.
Tell us more about this project, focusing on what is gamification and what are its effects on the self.
I know it’s a big topic, but what’s your take on the potential ban of TikTok in the USA, has it been discussed these days (mid-March 2024)?
Gamification is defined as the application of game design elements and game principles in non-game contexts in order to motivate and engage users by framing the situation as playful and fun. Almost every app is gamified in some degree, with attribution of points, levels and rewards. Among the most famous ones which come to my mind there are Duolingo and Headspace. When analyzing the characteristics of playing and comparing them with those of gamification, however, the opposite nature of the two activities becomes evident. Playing is in fact free, spontaneous, uncertain, unproductive, inherently social and regulated with shared and agreed upon rules among the participants; while gamification acts in the opposite way by being productive, certain (in commitment and repetition), individualistic and managed by algorithms. The gamified activity therefore becomes interconnected and part of the regulated life itself. The basis of its functioning exploits the willingness to self-improve by the subject through the modulation of these three components: quantified activity, time (repetition of action), and reward that releases dopamine and thus stimulates repetition. The engagement in these activities for a certain period of time produces different behavioral changes, a new routing which becomes a habit.
In my research and especially in my video “+1 Day Streak” I portrait the gamification mechanics as an aid to create and maintain a belief structure, a liturgy based on a self-imposed discipline devoted to self-realisation and productivity. The subject’s desires are not perceived as an internalisation of a neoliberalist logic which combines career ambition with the notion of self-optimization, but instead is given for granted that the citizens cultivate autonomously an inner spiritual dimension which is prone to efficiency and performance improvement. The ‘needs’ of the game breaks into the ‘real’ world of the user creating heterotopias where the boundaries between play and work vanish, generating an endless shift. This temporal and spatial invasion opens to a scenario of limitless improvement and productivity. It also creates a sense of responsibility towards the ‘game’ and an obligation to be constantly active in playing to keep progressing. Guilt, duty to sacrifice and dedication, are activated as an expression of faith in self-improvement. The final reward lies in achieving the best version of oneself, embarking on a race in which the finish line is gradually moved a little further, in a distant victory that in fact is never actually attainable. I think one can see a Christian morality in it, based on individual suffering, self-restraint, denial, and training.
Regarding the the potential ban of Tik Tok in the USA I must admit that I haven't followed in depth the entire situation, so my opinion remains somewhat general. It appears to me that the primary concern raised, that TikTok might share user data with the Chinese government and influence U.S. public opinion, is not solely a TikTok issue but should be addressed as a broader concern. The kinds of data collected by TikTok are also gathered by other social media platforms and sold to private buyers and government agencies too. I believe that safeguarding user information in general should be prioritized, rather than singling out one platform. Also I read in several article the description “communist chinese malware” referred to the social media platform, which honestly seems more connected to the specific geopolitical relationship with China more than any real concern for the users data.
Have you read the e/acc manifesto by a16z? I’m curious to have your take on the debate between effective altruism and effective accelerationism.
I have skimmed through parts of the manifesto, and what really stood out to me is not so much the content (which I largely disagree with), but rather the way it is formulated. Within the text, there are passages like "we should be conquerors. We are the apex predator. Our birthright…" which, in my opinion, reflect a violent and essentialist approach to the subject matter. I'll rewrite one of the problematic sentences here, which I believe encapsulates the ideology which I also investigated in my work about gamification: "Man was not meant to be farmed; man was meant to be useful, to be productive, to be proud". Overall, I find it fascinating as it represents an extreme verbalization of a more mainstream Western narrative. Effective accelerationism, in my view, takes on the characteristics of a religious cult, advocating for blind faith in all technology and "progress" for the sake of humanity.
By my previous answers I image it’s easy to understand how I personally disagree with the notion of technology being inherently good or neutral, divorced from the socio-economic context in which it is created, produced, and used.
You work and do research on topics such as online profiling, gamification, privacy and video surveillance. Do you think all these phenomena will be dismantled in the future? By who, or what? And what will the internet look like once these phenomena will no longer exist?
This is a very intriguing question for which I am not able to provide a real answer. I must confess, I've never speculated about the future of these technologies, given their deep embedding within the broader socio-economic landscape. Considering a future without them or in which they undergo significant reconfiguration necessitates a comprehensive reevaluation of society as a whole. I am asking myself how a science fiction writer (or a speculative designer) might approach such a possibility…
Thinking about online profiling and general data privacy concerns, probably social movements advocating for digital rights, privacy, and ethical technology hold the potential to ask for greater transparency and accountability among both companies and governments. Also, governmental bodies may introduce legislation aimed at safeguarding user privacy, imposing restrictions on personal data collection and usage, and regulating surveillance practices.
I think a lot of users are still not aware about the implications or the economic system in which their data is produced and sold. And I think some of them who are actually aware of the mechanisms are okay with the I don’t have nothing to hide, so they just see it as an exchange for digital services.
Anyway, even if this analysis could work for online profiling, applying a similar framework to gamification is very challenging. Gamification has become deeply ingrained in contemporary lifestyles, voluntarily embraced by individuals for their own benefit. This phenomenon appears deeply rooted in the concept of the hard working self-made man. Consequently, any shift away from this paradigm would necessitate a complete reimagining of how self-optimization and improvement is intended. I know this is a cheap answer, but I find myself thinking about the Fisher's quote "It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism."
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