All Watched Over by Algorithms

The panel sheds light on the misconceptions and obfuscated parts of what can be framed as algorithmic governance.

Do we already live in a society ruled by algorithms? As data and metadata, sensors and apps, numbers and patterns play an important role in the perception and experience of our everyday reality, it is clear that we are heading towards this direction with an accelerating pace. The same way newsfeeds affect our thought and behaviour online, tracking systems influence our habits and moves. But how aware can we be of the filtering and the processes that the computational logic allows? The new demographics of the era of noopolitics provide a new form of governmentality based on new modes of regulation, normalisation and control that can be subtle and soft. On the pretext of self-care and self-optimisation, the new society of metadata pays more attention to the desired outcome than to the reasons or politics lying behind. Aiming to discuss how algorithms have come to rule societies, the panel will shed light on some of the misconceptions and obfuscated parts of what can be framed as algorithmic governance. Connecting today's condition to the field of cybernetics, the thought of Foucault or the current discussion on the Anthropocene, the speakers will point towards different theoretical and cognitive perspectives that can be used in a datafying world.

with: Anja Hitzenberger, Felix Stalder, Matteo Pasquinelli, Antoinette Rouvroy, Evgeny Morozov