Captured by an algorithm

Abstract

Captured by an Algorithm is a commemorative plate series that looks at romance novels through the lens of Amazon Kindle Popular Highlights. A passage in a Kindle e-book becomes a Popular Highlight after a certain number of people independently highlight the same passage. Popular Highlights are displayed as underlined along with the number of times each has been highlighted by a reader. The highlights in romances are not the racy, salacious quotes one might expect. Instead, they reveal the readers' intense feelings of loneliness, grief, and discontent. With all the social technologies available today, it is astonishing to see that so many people feel so lonely.