Coding
2023-2026
Illustrator, Photoshop, Print
Built around a 12-day auto-ethnographic study across niche dating apps, the webzine examines how platform recommendation systems flatten complex human desire into a high-stakes performance of cultural capital.
Focusing on specific LA micro-geographies—from the polished aesthetics of West Hollywood to the art-adjacent, post-punk cosplay of Silver Lake—the project illustrates how dating profile signifiers (from Aesop bottles and unbuilt bedframes to weaponized theory and Letterboxd manifestos) act as algorithmic filters. The work critiques how app sorting mechanisms strip subversive subcultural markers of their historical context, repackaging them as commodified badges of taste.