From the window to the wall

Right, so we’re jam-packed with content. Being a viewer or a listener is as much about the process of triage as it is about the experience of the work itself. Gone are the days of piped content, decisions made in Montrose, Broadcasting House or further afield have decreasing influence on the media that we take the time out of our day to consume. Surely this is a liberating experience, what with the autonomy of selection firmly granted to the individual.

Yet we are warned against the perils of constructing impermeable bubbles of preference about ourselves, coded for by cookies, search and view histories and of course The Algorithm. This is all well and good in the rarified arena of material for entertainment and artistic consumption - but when these filter bubbles extend to social and political information and engagements (and it will) we will disconnect from a unifying politic and reside in policy bubbles, archly incompatible with cohesion. We’re jam-packed from the window to the wall with political outlooks and policy proposals - but the skill is in the sorting. Try to triage, I guess.