RESISTING OPTIMISATION

RESISTING OPTIMISATION is an ongoing series of sculptural drawings and artefacts that responds to the observation that certain identities and performances of self are privileged within online spaces, while others are rendered less visible through the algorithmic logic of platform culture. The works develop an abstracted visual language that imagines the algorithmic pressures, data-driven classification, and optimisation processes that shape, sculpt, and contour identity, desire, and validation through cyclical systems of measurement and reward.

The reflective surfaces of the stainless steel panels invite viewers to encounter themselves within the visualised volumes, composed of thousands of faceted connections generated through parametric modelling and realised through a collaborative process between machine and human intervention in oil paint. This encounter prompts reflection on how algorithmic systems mediate subjectivity and self-perception, and how contemporary culture is increasingly shaped by algorithmic agendas.

The series asks how identity is formed through processes of privileging and filtering that govern cultural production today, and what it might mean to develop tools that allow users to navigate, interrupt – or maybe even resist – the gamified logic of algorithmic optimisation, engaging digital environments with greater agency and authenticity.

Keywords - Algorithmic Optimisation, Digital Identity, Networked Subjectivity, Platform Capitalism, Cybernetic Feedback, Social Metrics, Algorithmic Desire, Validation Economies, Parametric Modelling, Sculptural Drawing, Critical AI, Queer Algorithmics, Resistance Practices, Computational Aesthetics.

Resisting Optimisation 00–3,
Machine and hand-drawn oil paint on Bright Annealed Stainless Steel, 16 Tiles,
124 x 174cm, Oslo 2026