What's the drama?

Terms of Service Fantasy Reader is an investigation of Terms of Service, the untouched realm of everyday software, through experiential, performative inquiry. Terms of Service are legal documents that define the grounds upon which a certain service is to be used and as a contract explains the obligations of both the service and the user. As such, they are conceptually demanding, long and often hermetic to read. At the same time, they are one of the main battlegrounds for user rights, as a legally binding statement. These documents get "signed" on a daily basis, when downloading and installing an app and are very often difficult to find, even for the user who is interested in reading the terms under which they are in interaction with a specific service. Terms of Service Fantasy Reader is a devoted space to allow the "luxury" of time to collectively read through multiple Terms of Service of various commonly used apps, bring forth discussions that get raised and extract the most particular parts of the texts. How does a one model for all type of design inscribe itself into the Terms of Service of various applications and how has a certain type of language come to be?

Process

This collective endevour asks participants to analyze their intimate, lived relationships with technology and concepts such as data privacy; interface microaggressions; conceptual, legal, and technical glitches;. Participants will use their own devices to examine the Terms of Service of their installed applications, locating the most confusing, absurd, illogical, or abstract segments. A Terms of Service Fantasy Reader becomes constructed, creating a radio play of personal frustrations, interface anxieties, technical problems, and bureaucratic language, as most participants likely encounter the underlying agreements behind beloved apps for the very first time.

Where's the drama?

The Terms of Service Fantasy Reader initiated drama in places such as The Creative Time Summit, SEEDIG South East European Dialog on Internet Governance, on PIKSEL festival, in schools, libraries, bedrooms, toilets. It collaborates with similar vocal collective initiatives and grows aspirations and fantasies about creating exchange inside policy settings and public fora. Want to make drama together? Write to termsofservicefantasyreader@gmail.com and we will prepare. You can also experience some past iterations in this web space