***apologies for cross posting***
Dear all,
We are inviting you to submit your abstracts to the online symposium on
algorithms, temporalities, and futures. See the CfP below.
*Call for Papers: Blackboxed Futures: Multiple Temporalities of Algorithmic
Technologies (Online Symposium, March 19)*
Algorithmic technologies are nowadays proliferating in various sectors of
the economy and, more generally, in society. Yet, while their widespread
development already occupies several areas of contemporary life, their
material configuration often remains opaque and difficult to comprehend,
especially when it comes to how algorithms shape the futures of people and
societies at large. Often, algorithms and AI technologies are conceived by
their users and creators as =E2=80=9Cmagic=E2=80=9D that is beyond comprehe=
nsion =E2=80=94 an
understanding that has a range of political and cultural implications for
society (Campolo & Crawford, 2020) and has been consequently recognized in
the theorizations of economy and politics (Pignarre and Stengers, 2012).
Questions of vital scholarly and political importance emerge =E2=80=93 what
future(s) do algorithmic technologies offer for society, who is included in
them and left out, how they can be scrutinized and resisted? Do we witness
a =E2=80=9Ctemporal stasis in an age of automated media=E2=80=9D (Andrejevi=
c, Dencik &
Trere, 2020) or a =E2=80=9Cspeculative time-complex=E2=80=9D (Avanessian & =
Malik, 2016)?
In this symposium, we invite scholars from critical media, cultural,
science and technology studies, as well as adjacent fields, to further
reflect upon the imagined futures of algorithmic technologies and multiple
temporalities enrolled in their continuous enactment. We suggest focusing
on algorithmic temporalities by thinking of them both in terms of related
discursive practices and issues of algorithmic design. Addressing both
theoretical and empirical matters of algorithmic temporalities, this
symposium aims to shed light on how our thinking about time vis-a-vis
algorithmic technologies spreads =E2=80=94 or meets resistance =E2=80=94 in=
different
social and political contexts.
The symposium will take place online on *March 19*. We invite papers that
reflect (but are by no means limited) upon the following themes:
=E2=80=93 discussions of multiple temporalities related to algorithmic tech=
nologies
and the governance regimes of which they are a part of
=E2=80=93 grassroots and top-down imaginaries of futures as they pertain to=
the
(mis)use of algorithms
=E2=80=93 historical accounts exploring interconnections between time and
algorithmic technologies
=E2=80=93 political-economic accounts of temporal regimes associated with
algorithmic technologies
=E2=80=93 decolonial computation and decolonization of algorithms
=E2=80=93 creative and speculative approaches seeking to address the issues=
of
algorithmic futures
Please, send your abstracts (250-500 words) and a short bio to the
following email: blackboxedfutures@gmail.com no later than February 20. The
results of the selection process will be published on March 1.
Postgraduate Symposium, Critical Media Studies, HSE, Moscow
Dmitry Muravyov, Artyom Kolganov, Aleksey Pereyaslov, Elizaveta Panina,
Yujie Chi
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