Sarah Kang- Looking Outwards-08

Darius Kazemi is a computer programmer and artist specializing in “weird internet art”. After graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, he was temporarily a video game designer before co-founding a technology collective called Feel Train with Courtney Stanton. In this collective, Kazemi collaborates with other artists to create programmatic bots, such as the “StayWokeBot” and a twitter bot project called “Relive 44” which started reposting every tweet that former President Barack Obama has posted on the platform, in May of 2017.

In his festival lecture, Darius refers to his most known project, which is his Amazon shopper bot. Every month, he gives his bot a $50 amazon gift card and waits for his random packages to arrive at his doorstep. His program uses customized API values with the collaboration of Amazon and the US Postal Shipping system to create a personal shopper that buys him random books and CD’s. Essentially, his program has an output in the form of his random monthly packages. He goes on to explain how he explores the parameters of his API guidelines using Google StreetView and the resulting images.

What I admire about Darius Kazemi’s work is that he explores rudimentary and everyday elements that go unnoticed, and turns it into an opportunity for a new perspective or interest. His Amazon shopper bot would provide the opportunity to the receiver to read or listen to something they never even knew existed or something they would never purchase themselves.

Eyeo 2014 – Darius Kazemi from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.