Search Engine Artist Manipulates the Internet - Internet Imperialism

Bow, NH, January 03, 2018 --(PR.com)-- Prior to December 2017 #accordingToTheInternet Bow, New Hampshire was a quaint town with landmarks such as a bandstand and community building. It’s search results are now dominated by paintings of crowded interiors, jumbled neighborhoods, and pervasive images of a red VW Jetta.

The Internet Imperialist responsible is artist Gretchen Andrew, a london-based artist who grew up in the town she has come to dominate. Internet Imperialism is Andrew’s method of hacking search results to become dominated by her paintings. She does this through intentional structuring of information in a way preferred by search engines such as Google.

The manipulated search results provoke questions about the authority we give the internet and who has the tools and understanding to participate. “Knowing how to organize information is a weapon we are seeing deployed a lot recently. I wanted to inject my personal memories and perspective onto the town as a way to call attention to how this is done for much more sinister purposes.”

Anyone can see Andrew’s art within Google.com by searching “bow, new hampshire” but she also has an exhibition open to the public that brings together her paintings and search engine art in physical space.