ALGORITHMIC IMAGINATIONS: RETHINKING “ALGORITHMIC” AS A HEURISTIC FOR UNDERSTANDING COMPUTATIONALLY-STRUCTURED CULTURE

Authors

  • Ted Striphas University of Colorado Boulder, United States of America
  • Blake Hallinan Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
  • CJ Reynolds Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
  • Mikayla Brown Temple University, United States of America
  • Hector Postigo Temple University, United States of America

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12131

Keywords:

Algorithmic Imagination, Algorithm, Audit Videos, Digital Afterlife, Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

How we imagine our place within the structure of sociotechnical-human relationships—specifically, in domains of life affected by data-analytics and the probabilistic bets institutions and people in power make on the future of our credit worthiness, political leanings, shopping habits etc.—is our “algorithmic imagination.” The purpose of this panel is to explore the “algorithmic imagination” as it manifests in particular scholarly, historical, socio-cultural, and technical contexts. The panelists prioritize how social actors, situated in distinct settings, go about constructing an “algorithmic imagination” in conversation/opposition with how computational systems have “imagined” them; they will also reflect critically and self-reflexively on the implications of an algorithmic imagination, so conceived. Collectively, the panelists demure from monolithic understandings of the “algorithmic imagination” while also embracing algorithmic intersectionality. The primary contention of this panel is that the ways in which algorithms have been “thought,” or imagined, have made it difficult to conceive of practicable strategies for transforming algorithmic cultures and, indeed, for delinking them from both state and corporate control. The panel, thus, makes three primary contributions. First, we situate, define, and distinguish the concept, “algorithmic imagination.” Second, the panel provides analyses of key facets of the algorithmic imagination, in specific historical settings and life-worlds defined by intersectionality. Lastly, it aims to contribute, however provisionally, to a political theory that recognizes the deterministic power of computational systems but rejects the notion that power is inherently democratic or monolithically insurmountable.

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Published

2021-09-15

How to Cite

Striphas, T., Hallinan, B., Reynolds, C., Brown, M., & Postigo, H. (2021). ALGORITHMIC IMAGINATIONS: RETHINKING “ALGORITHMIC” AS A HEURISTIC FOR UNDERSTANDING COMPUTATIONALLY-STRUCTURED CULTURE. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12131

Issue

Section

Panels