All-Aligned: Rethinking Affective Digital Power through Algorithmic Flags and Participative Software Art

Uroš Krčadinac; Jacque Laroche

doi:10.25038/am.v0i28.611

Authors

Uroš Krčadinac Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia
Jacque Laroche Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i28.611

Keywords:

generative art; affective computing; identity and ideology; post-socialist æsthetics; surveillance capitalism; vexillology.

Abstract

This paper presents All-Aligned (Svesvrstani), a participatory algorithmic art project that generates digital flags through user-defined inputs. As an open-source system for automated vexillology, it visualizes how algorithmic infrastructures construct, commodify, and modulate digital identities. Rooted in a post-Yugoslav context but addressing global dynamics, the project asks how algorithmically generated flags can function as ideological and æsthetic constructs – both reflecting and critiquing identity formation under surveillance capitalism. Through a series of public exhibitions and workshops, All-Aligned reveals the platformization of selfhood and the affective economy of engagement. Yet, it also opens space for resistance: by exposing its logic and inviting co-creation, it transforms algorithmic profiling into critical play. Positioned within the lineage of tactical media art, All-Aligned reclaims generative computational æsthetics as a site for collective agency and ideological experimentation.

Author Biographies

Uroš Krčadinac, Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

Uroš Krčadinac (b. 1984) is a digital artist, software engineer, author and educator. His transdisciplinary practice includes programming, writing, animation and mapmaking. He holds a PhD in Informatics from the University in Belgrade. Krčadinac published his research papers in the M21 IEEE journals, while he exhibited his artworks at solo and group exhibitions, festivals and conferences in Serbia and abroad. As an educator and public lecturer, he designed and held 100+ public lectures, forums and workshops. He is a co-author of one infographic travel novel. He currently works as an Associate Professor of Digital Art at the Department of Digital Art, Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade. He also works as a research associate at the AI Lab, FON, University of Belgrade, and as a visiting professor at the Department of New Media Art at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.

Jacque Laroche, Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

Jacques Laroche (b. 1980) is a political activist, technologist, writer and educator who holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and a Minor in English. In New York, NY he was involved in the Occupy movement and worked with the activist collective Strike Debt to struggle against, educate about and abolish unjust debts. Later, in Miami, FL he worked with various local organizations, grass-roots initiatives and activists at the onset of the Black Lives Matter movement. In addition to activism, Jacques uses his technological and philosophical training to explore the intersection of science, politics and society. He has written on, been interviewed about and discussed these topics in various forums and publications around the world.

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All-Aligned: Rethinking Affective Digital Power through Algorithmic Flags and Participative Software Art

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Abstract

Author Biographies

Uroš Krčadinac, Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

Jacque Laroche, Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

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