People Like You
Contemporary Figures of Personalisation

People Like You

Personalisation is changing many parts of contemporary life, from the way we shop and communicate to the kinds of public services we access. We are told that purchases, experiences, treatments, and interactions can all be customised to an optimum.

As a group of scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and artists, we are exploring how personalisation actually works. What are optimum outcomes? Do personalising practices have unintended consequences?

We argue that personalisation is not restricted to a single area of life and that personalised practices develop, interact and move between different sites and times. The project is split into four areas: personalised medicine and care; data science; digital cultures; interactive arts practices.

People Like You: Contemporary Figures of Personalisation is funded by a Collaborative Award in the Medical Humanities and Social Sciences from The Wellcome Trust, 2018–2022.

About People Like You

Personalisation is changing many parts of contemporary life, from the way we shop and communicate to the kinds of public services we access. We are told that purchases, experiences, treatments, and interactions can all be customised to an optimum.

As a group of scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and artists, we are exploring how personalisation actually works. What are optimum outcomes? Do personalising practices have unintended consequences?

We argue that personalisation is not restricted to a single area of life and that personalised practices develop, interact and move between different sites and times. The project is split into four areas: personalised medicine and care; data science; digital cultures; interactive arts practices.

People Like You: Contemporary Figures of Personalisation is funded by a Collaborative Award in the Medical Humanities and Social Sciences from The Wellcome Trust, 2018–2022.

Who are ‘People Like You’? A look back at what we said, and what we’ve done as we come to the end of our project (2022)

the PLY team

11 July 2022

the PLY team

11 July 2022

In 2016, NHS England claimed in their personalised medicine strategy, “if we get our approach right, the NHS will become the first health service in the world to truly embrace personalised medicine. We will create a healthcare system focused on improving health, not just treating illness, able to accurately predict disease and tailor treatments” (NHS […]

Read more
This person does not exist

Matías Valderrama Barragán

27 June 2022

Matías Valderrama Barragán

27 June 2022

How does personalisation relate to the existence of the person? Algorithms developed for personalisation intersect in a strange way with algorithms dedicated to the generation of people who do not exist. We find ourselves in a scenario where algorithmic mediation allows for not only the personalisation of various things, but also the personalised creation of […]

Read more
Which data best describes ‘you’?

Helen Ward, Roz Redd and Stefanie Posavec

8 July 2022

Helen Ward, Roz Redd and Stefanie Posavec

8 July 2022

At the Great Exhibition Road Festival in June 2022, we asked visitors to our art exhibition, Data Murmurations, Points in Flight, to take part in a small game. They were asked, ‘which five datasets/points would paint the most accurate and complete picture of who you are as a person?’ People were presented with 16 types […]

Read more