Header image: Simon Werkert, Google Maps Hacks. Performance & Installation, 2020.
A story has been floating recently around about a Berlin-based artist, Simon Eckert, that was able to cause ‘virtual traffic jams.’ By loading up a wagon full of cell phones, with google maps enabled, he cleverly convinced that algorithm, that traffic had come to a dead stop or crawl, when in fact, there were few vehicles in the area. I happen to love a little bit of art mischief and think this is a very clever project, but it got me thinking about how a little bit of collective action can create significant gaps and misinformation between the meatspace and the cloud.
Last year, there were reports of drivers at Reagan National Airport working together to enable surge pricing. According to the report, multiple times per night, all the drivers in the waiting area would turn their driver app off, and wait a minute or two, until surge prices had reached their desired threshold before turning their apps back on and locking in the higher fares.
On a similar note, there have been numerous stories of LA residents reporting fake hazards, accidents, and roadblocks in the app Waze. With enough reports, the app will theoretically reroute traffic returning their neighborhoods to their original quiet, traffic-free state. Is saving 45 seconds on a 50-minute commute worth permanently altering traffic patterns and communities? By most accounts, these stories were never fully confirmed, and probably would have only been useful for a short period, before the algorithm and other drivers caught onto the ruse.
What begins to emerge from this handful of examples is that it only takes a small amount of coordination from a few actors to completely change how the world looks to our connected devices and manipulate them for good or potentially nefarious purposes.
