Small c vs. big C: How Computational Infrastructures Capture Technical and Social Imaginary for Public Life

In recent years, the communications, sociality and operations of public institutions have become increasingly dependent on Computational Infrastructures provided by Big Tech. From decentralized contact tracing apps for public health to free online school classrooms for education: Computational Infrastructures have rapidly expanded their remit. This conversation will center on how institutions and the lives they are tasked with supporting, are impacted by Computational Infrastructures.

Owned and managed by a handful of companies, Computational Infrastructures consist of a vast global network of data centers, network infrastructures and mobile devices, as well as platforms that are becoming essential for the provision of economically viable and scalable digital services. Their inherent economic models and mandate to grow, require Big Tech companies to expand into all aspects of life, be it health management, border informatics, educational platforms, precision farming, or logistics. We want to grasp this moment of infrastructural shift and re-imagine it as a move towards collective empowerment: how can we engender shared responsibility, leverage creative resistance, and develop new ways of interfacing across scales, between communities and institutions?

Drawing on feminist, decolonial and intersectional analysis, The Institute for Technology in The Public Interest (TITiPI) has been studying how infrastructural shifts are changing institutional conditions that impact feminist organising and the lives of marginalised communities including people of color, women, trans and non-binary people. TITiPI is a trans-practice gathering of activists, artists, engineers and theorists initiated by Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Helen Pritchard and Femke Snelting. Together we convene communities to hold computational infrastructures to account and to create spaces for articulating what technologies in the “public interest” might be when “public interest” is always in-the-making. We develop tools from feminisms, queer theory, computation, intersectionality, anti-coloniality, disability studies, historical materialism and artistic practice to generate currently inexistant vocabularies, imaginaries and methodologies. TITiPI functions as an infrastructure to intensify these practices and to establish new ways in which policy making around technology is organized in the public interest.

To find out more, please visit: http://titipi.org/

This session is the sixth edition of the ’Thinking through the Crises’ series of the Amsterdam Research Center for Gender and Sexuality (ARC-GS). Follow this link (https://arcgs.uva.nl/events/thinking-through-the-crises-lecture-series/thinking-through-the-crises.html) to read more about the series.

Gerelateerde programma’s
20 03 24
Green Clouds? Towards Sustainable Data Infrastructure

In our rapidly digitizing world, the demand for data storage and processing has surged, leading to the proliferation of data centers and cloud computing infrastructure. However, this exponential growth comes with significant environmental costs, as data infrastructure consumes vast amounts of energy and contribute to carbon emissions. This roundtable addresses this pressing issue, delving into the critical intersection of technology and environmental sustainability from the civil society perspective.

Datum
Woensdag 20 mrt 2024 20:00 uur
Locatie
SPUI25
21 02 24
Do We Really Care? Public Values and Digital Technology in the Netherlands

What do the Dutch value in digital technologies? This roundtable presents the results of the first survey to explore the relation between public values, human rights, and technology design. We find that most people take measures to protect their online privacy, but also that half of the population has never heard of technical standards.

Datum
Woensdag 21 feb 2024 17:00 uur
Locatie
SPUI25
29 05 24
Challenging discriminatory algorithms through legal means
The Meta Case

Is Facebook potentially violating Dutch equality laws? In this event, leading up to a hearing of the case before the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights against digital giant Meta, we delve into the origins of this Meta Case and engage in a broader conversation about how technological developments can reflect, identify, and address societal issues such as sexism, racism, and other types of discrimination.

Datum
Woensdag 29 mei 2024 17:00 uur
Locatie
SPUI25