An interactive data visualisation exploring the gaze economy. How internet culture transforms lived experience into visual culture. Using the COVID-19 lockdown (2020–21) as its case study, the piece examines the moment the internet became the only window to reality, and what that did to how we feel, share, and eventually simulate emotion.

Theoretically grounded in McLuhan and Baudrillard, the piece draws on real GIF consumption data (Giphy API) mapped against pandemic keywords across four phases — epidemiological, policy, emotional, and cultural — to visualise how the scroll replaced the experience, and the meme replaced the feeling.

Built with D3.js, HTML/CSS/JS. Produced as part of a data visualisation programme with Tandis Shoushtary at Cooper Union.