Presentation at the Hybrid Futures symposium a series of critical talks with leading-edge practitioners and thinker around the interaction between humans and machines, curated and led by Dr Betti Marenko.
Abstract
In the current regime of algorithmic prediction, the future is being computed in real-time. This process is of a spatial nature: past data are vectorised into mathematical spaces where predictions are produced through geometric operations. The results are folded back onto the present, reshaping it as a distorted image of the past optimised for certain variables (profit, attention capture, engagement, etc). The negative effects of these prescriptive mechanisms are well documented and continue to unfold.
Design is involved with them in various capacities, from the implementation of interfaces to the aestheticisation of an imaginary "artificial intelligence".
In this talk, David Benqué argues that design can engage critically with algorithmic prediction using diagrams as a language. Diagrams accurately describe the inner workings of algorithmic processes while also surfacing broader social and political ramifications, all while speaking to the spatial sensibilities/practices of design. This language can be mobilised to dig deep into the algorithmic systems and the rationalities that they support, making them available for excavation, examination, manipulation, and critique.
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