Today, we’re launching our game Tally Saves the Internet at https://tallysavestheinternet.com/
Tally Saves the Internet is a browser extension that transforms data advertisers collect into a multiplayer game. Once installed, a friendly pink blob named Tally lives in the corner of your screen and warns you when companies translate your human experiences into free behavioral data. When Tally encounters “product monsters” (online trackers and their corresponding product marketing categories) you can capture them in a turn-based battle (e.g. “pokemon style”) transforming the game into a progressive tracker blocker, where you earn the right to be let alone through this playful experience.
Three years in the making, this project ambitiously takes on all websites as its canvas and includes thousands of games assets, lines of dialog and dataveillance terms. The project emerged from early brainstorming sessions in Florida and Germany and was significantly expanded since we arrived at Davidson College. To see a detailed list of funders and participants, be sure to visit the project’s credits page. Special shoutouts go to Sophia Mundy, Jan and Joel Dietrick, Davidson College (the Jay Hurt Hub, Mark Sample, Katie St Clair, Lia Newman), Art Center Nabi in Seoul, Resilient Networks Initiative, North Carolina State University’s Immersive Scholar Project, the North Carolina Arts Council, UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, the Fulbright Scholar Program and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).
Tally uses an anonymous username generator so we won’t recognize you in its leaderboards, but we hope you’ll join in the fun. The more the merrier. This will be especially important as we visualize live game play on an immersive, 8-display screen at North Carolina State University’s library on October 2, 2020! That day 1-3 pm, NCSU will host a panel with Owen, myself, UC Berkeley’s Nick Merrill and Emory’s Lauren Klein and a live game play where you get a sense of our project for NCSU’s new visualization studio. If you want to participate, send me an email at joelle@sneakaway.studio
May Tally keep you company online during this tricky fall.