CHUUK CHUUK WOO is a performative piece that prints out the data gathering process happening online to a fake receipt. Through this action of printing the project provides an imaginative scenario, in which customers are companies that are trying to collect users’ data, and we are the sellers.

Our data and browsing history are collected by many parties without even a notice. These data could be their identity, interests and potential purchase. As the internet is becoming increasingly smart and the big data technology is getting more accurate, everyone should be careful to secure our personal data and protect our own privacy.

In a format of live-printing performance, artists try to give the date gathering, which is happening in the virtual world, a metaphoric representation in the physical reality. The format of a receipt points to the commercial intention behind data gathering. During the performance, the wearable printing device is on the back of the artist. The artist wears it and let the receipt to be printed at different locations.

Technical Details

The artwork is achieved by a browser plugin that is modified based on uBlock Origin. It uses uBlock Origin to block the requests that are related to privacy and data gathering. Then it acquires these blocking history and calculate the total js files that are blocked by uBlock from each domain name. These data as well as user’s IP adress information would be saved to a txt file from a simple click in the plugin. Processing would then be used to process the data from the txt file and send the information through serial communication to arduino, in order to trigger printing requests to a thermal printer.