UC San Diego

Pierre Lévy conceptualizes the Semantic Sphere as the layer of addressability which connects concepts among content. Digital humanities scholars have developed a powerful discourse surrounding the politics of data sovereignty and user privacy. In the era of the Semantic Sphere, proprietary ownership is further complicated as the information economy shifts away from quantifiable metrics of data toward computational and collective interpretation games. How do we situate our body in relation to our user content to better understand issues of ownership? This paper presents the content visualization project, Eat Until Your Organ Shuts Up, to explore the potential physiological and epistemological discrepancies pertaining to user embodiment. The body circulates blood; the user circulates content.