Random data can, at first, seem meaningful- and meaningful data can, at first, seem random. One gripe that I had with the Spam Architecture series was that I felt the data was not meaningful enough. It came out as a random junky mess, which made me feel uneasy. It was as if the unwanted garbage we have in our spam folders had manifested itself as a real, space-wasting piece of garbage. I can appreciate the genius of it, but it seems to chaotic to me to be a information. It is not informative to me.

On the other hand, The Dumpster takes a pool of sad data and turns it into something more meaningful. The piece bring life into these dark times for kids by allowing us to humor ourselves in it. The beholder can laugh at “kids these days,” but also laugh at themselves. It’s like looking into a grade school diary, only on a mass scale. I gained a comforting sense of solidarity with these kids and with my younger self while exploring the piece.