Week 04: Metaphors and TikTok Terrain
- Alexandros Barbayianis
- Oct 5
- 5 min read
Metaphors We Live By - The Highlights
Lakoff and Johnson's main argument: metaphors aren't just poetic language, they structure how we think and act. This clicked for me because I've been trying to figure out why weather balloons mean such different things to different people.
Science says: THE ATMOSPHERE IS A CONTAINER FOR DATA
Balloons go up, collect info, come down. Clean and neutral. This hides the pollution, the geopolitics, all the messy reality.
Conspiracy says: THE SKY IS A SURVEILLANCE SCREEN
Everything above us is watching. This taps into real surveillance anxiety but ignores the actual meteorology.
My interviews revealed: THE BALLOON IS WHATEVER YOU'RE ALREADY AFRAID OF Three people, zero prior knowledge, immediately projected their fears onto it. The balloon became a blank screen.
The "highlighting and hiding" concept is key. Each metaphor shows you something while obscuring everything else. Neither the science frame nor the conspiracy frame gives you the full picture.
My project's metaphor: THE ALGORITHM IS TERRAIN
Not a feed (too passive), not a container (too stable)—it's landscape you navigate. My guide teaches you how to cross it without falling into holes.
The Form: TikTok Field Guide
The Form and Why
A simulated TikTok scroll as field guide. 3-5 minute video that looks like screen-recording someone's phone while they search "weather balloons" and swipe through 13 videos (3-45 seconds each). Voiceover provides field guide-style instruction on how to navigate this content without getting algorithmically radicalized.
Why this form:
Started wanting Adult Swim "Off the Air" surrealism—fragmented, weird, artistic. But that positions me outside as commentator. The TikTok simulation puts me inside as guide. The difference matters because the assignment asks for something "usable." Surrealism makes you contemplate; field guides teach transferable skills.
Also: this is where people will actually encounter weather balloon information. Not curated webpages, not magazines—TikTok's algorithm serving content between drag performances and conspiracy theories. Meeting users where information actually circulates rather than where they think it should exist.
References for this approach:
"Unedited Footage of a Bear" (Adult Swim) - starts as nature doc, corrupts into horror. Uses authoritative guide format but slowly breaks it. That's what I want with the voiceover becoming uncertain.
alantutorial series - maintains instructional format even as everything falls apart. "I'm teaching you balloon identification but maybe I'm also being tracked."
Sasha Engelmann's "Sensing Art Atmosphere" - the atmosphere isn't neutral space, it's culturally loaded. The TikTok interface makes this literal.
Features, Stylistic and Semiotic
Visual:
Green screen with TikTok UI overlay (not actual platform capture)
Vertical phone format—embodied experience of scrolling
Interface elements as navigational markers (like button, comment count, share icon)
Variable pacing: quick swipes past filler, lingering on videos the guide wants you to study
Audio:
Voiceover that's instructional but not condescending
Goes silent during video 11 (glitchy alien probe)
Becomes uncertain during video 12 (drag queen abduction): "I don't know what to do with this..."
Returns for video 13 but admits the algorithm sometimes accidentally creates meaning
Semiotic:
TikTok UI = map of terrain
Swipe direction = path through landscape
Engagement metrics = warning signs ("2M views but only 300 comments—suspicious ratio")
The glitch = moment guide itself might be compromised
Experiential Elements
The user experiences:
Initial orientation - "This is how to search, this is what you'll see"
Pattern recognition training - "Notice the lack of sources here" vs "Notice the citations here"
Algorithmic awareness - "Your likes tell TikTok you want more like this"
Cognitive dissonance - Scientific content, conspiracy content, performance art all have equal visual weight
Guide uncertainty - When voiceover admits it doesn't know (videos 11-12), you have to apply skills it taught earlier
Algorithmic recursion - Video 13 loops back to video 4, showing how platforms create illusion of coherence
Unlike a traditional guide (bird guide lets you pause, compare, verify), this guide moves at algorithmic pace. You can't stop and think—you have to make quick judgments, which mirrors actual TikTok use.
What It Asks People to Do
During the guide:
Observe pattern differences between content types
Notice your own impulses about what to engage with
Question the guide itself when it becomes uncertain
After the guide:
Apply pattern recognition to your own TikTok use
Make conscious engagement choices (like vs observe vs scroll)
Distinguish between documented facts, reasonable extrapolation, unfounded leaps
Sit with ambiguity when performance art and conspiracy blur
Critical navigation of algorithmic information landscapes. Not "here are facts about weather balloons" but "here's how to evaluate what you encounter about weather balloons (or anything else) on TikTok."
Who Is the User
Someone who searched "weather balloons" on TikTok because:
They heard about the 2023 Chinese balloon incident
They encountered conspiracy content elsewhere
They stumbled on weather balloon aesthetics
They're genuinely curious about meteorology
They're already on the platform (not TikTok-naive) but possibly media-literacy-naive. Don't yet think about engagement as algorithmic training. Might not distinguish between "interesting to watch" and "worth amplifying."
Age probably 16-35 (TikTok demographics), comfortable with vertical video and rapid context-switching, but maybe not critical about information sources.
The Metaphor Well-Suited to This Form
THE ALGORITHM IS TERRAIN
Field guides teach you to navigate physical landscapes by identifying features: "This is poison ivy—note the three leaves. This is Virginia creeper—five leaves." My guide works the same: "This is conspiracy theorizing—note the lack of sources. This is climate activism—note the citations."
You carry a field guide into the woods, consult it when uncertain, eventually learn to identify species without it. Same here—you watch the guide, internalize the pattern recognition, apply it independently to your feed.
The TikTok scroll becomes the terrain. The UI overlay is the map. The voiceover is the experienced guide. You gain survival skills for dangerous landscape.
This metaphor works because:
Algorithms DO have topography (rabbit holes, echo chambers, safe paths)
Navigation IS a learnable skill
The guide doesn't give you all answers, it teaches you how to orient yourself
You can get lost if you don't pay attention
What Happens If You Apply a Different Form
Printed zine:
Metaphor becomes KNOWLEDGE IS MATERIAL ARTIFACT
Archival, collectible, offline—resistant to algorithmic manipulation
But: can't show the scroll, the UI, the embodied swiping experience
Can't teach platform-specific literacy
Becomes more about "information about weather balloons" than "how to navigate weather balloon information"
Podcast/audio guide:
Metaphor becomes UNDERSTANDING IS LISTENING
More contemplative, analytical, time for reflection
But: loses the visual literacy component
Can't see engagement metrics, aesthetic differences between content types
One interviewee suggested "audio streaming live until balloon pops" which is poetic but doesn't teach navigation
Adult Swim surrealism:
Metaphor becomes THE GUIDE IS A FEVER DREAM
Truth through disorientation rather than instruction
More artistically ambitious, gets at anxiety/horror of climate crisis
But: less transferable as skill
You experience MY anxiety without gaining tools for YOUR navigation
Breaks the "usable guide" requirement
Instagram carousel:
Metaphor becomes KNOWLEDGE IS SWIPEABLE FRAGMENTS
Each slide = one lesson
But: too static, loses the algorithmic momentum and scroll speed
Feels didactic rather than experiential
The TikTok simulation is the only form that:
Teaches platform-specific literacy while maintaining critical distance
Shows you algorithmic behavior without trapping you in it (you're watching simulation, not actually scrolling)
Lets you observe your own reactions in real-time
Transfers skills to actual platform use
The form change DOES change the project significantly. It shifts from "here's information about weather balloons" to "here's how to survive information about weather balloons on this specific platform where you'll actually encounter it."
References
Cooper, Helene, et al. "Chinese Spy Balloon Flew Over Secret Nuclear Weapons Sites." New York Times, Feb 2023.
Engelmann, Sasha. Sensing Art Atmosphere. Routledge, 2024.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press, 1980.
McAndrew, James. "The Roswell Report: Case Closed." U.S. Air Force, 1997.
Saraceno, Tomás. Museo Aero Solar. https://studiotomassaraceno.org/museo-aero-solar-for-an-aerocene-era/
SondeHub amateur radiosonde tracking. https://sondehub.org/
alantutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5adN74aBxZk
Off the Air: Holes. Adult Swim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1SlmeN2oM
Unedited Footage of a Bear. Adult Swim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMjJNGg9Z8
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