THE VALIDATION JUNKY BOOK
DIGITAL ARTBOOK PUBLICATION - WORK-IN-PROGRESS
THE VALIDATION JUNKY is a graphic book exploring identity under extreme technological saturation. Over 300 pages, layered illustrations build gradually, revealing a fictional subject shaped by algorithms, platform economies, and the politics of being seen.
Each page adds a new symbol or structural trace, gradually revealing an imagined character—THE VALIDATION JUNKY—an accumulation of visual and conceptual density through which the how, why, and what of their formation ultimately come into view. The figure becomes a critical speculation of identity under technological saturation, sculpted through neurochemical feedback loops, social metrics, and algorithmic optimisation.
The book functions as a slow reveal. THE VALIDATION JUNKY is structured as a provocation inviting friction, humour, and reflection through the wits of design. It doesn’t ask how we return to a pre-digital self, but how we might navigate platform capitalism with greater agency, and without surrendering entirely to its systems.
Keywords - Digital Identity, Algorithmic Desirability, Platform Capitalism, Speculative Publishing, Post-Ontology, Selfhood, Social Metrics, Networked Subjectivity, Feedback Systems, Performativity, Identity Capital, Media Aesthetics, Designed Fiction, Cybernetic Intimacies, Validation Culture.
Each page adds a new symbol or structural trace, gradually revealing an imagined character—THE VALIDATION JUNKY—an accumulation of visual and conceptual density through which the how, why, and what of their formation ultimately come into view. The figure becomes a critical speculation of identity under technological saturation, sculpted through neurochemical feedback loops, social metrics, and algorithmic optimisation.
The book functions as a slow reveal. THE VALIDATION JUNKY is structured as a provocation inviting friction, humour, and reflection through the wits of design. It doesn’t ask how we return to a pre-digital self, but how we might navigate platform capitalism with greater agency, and without surrendering entirely to its systems.
Keywords - Digital Identity, Algorithmic Desirability, Platform Capitalism, Speculative Publishing, Post-Ontology, Selfhood, Social Metrics, Networked Subjectivity, Feedback Systems, Performativity, Identity Capital, Media Aesthetics, Designed Fiction, Cybernetic Intimacies, Validation Culture.
THE VALIDATION JUNKY BOOK
IN PROGRESS
Creative Direction & Concept, Adam Peacock
Supported by Goldsmiths University of London UK, UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK South and East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS)