Geopolitical Algorithms: you say Palestine, Google says Israel

If any more evidence be needed of the (geo)political agency of Google’s algorithms, then this – currently ongoing – incident is fairly definitive. A couple of days ago, Kristin Szremski, a reporter and advocate for justice in Palestine, noticed that the names she had given to photo albums she had uploaded to Google+ had been changed without her knowledge or consent. Notwithstanding the privacy implications … Continue reading Geopolitical Algorithms: you say Palestine, Google says Israel

Pip ThorntonApril 5, 2016April 5, 2016Leave a comment

The Monster that ‘Google’ Created: some thoughts on EX MACHINA (2015)

Earlier this week I curated and co-hosted Passengerfilms’ latest event in London (quite aptly within a stone’s throw of Silicon Roundabout). Called BEING HUMAN // HUMAN BEING, the event featured a screening and discussion of Alex Garland’s 2015 film Ex Machina. The fact that we sold out before we even started advertising I think goes to show not only what an awesome panel we had … Continue reading The Monster that ‘Google’ Created: some thoughts on EX MACHINA (2015)

Pip ThorntonMarch 25, 2016March 25, 2016Leave a comment

Language Matters: ‘rabid feminism’ & the Oxford Dictionary

The work I have been doing around language in a digital age has mostly involved the algorithmic reproduction of language through search engines such as Google. However, I have just come across an interesting (and very heated) debate taking place on Twitter involving Oxford Dictionaries Online, the digital version of the Oxford Dictionary of English which (amongst other things) supplies Apple products with their built-in … Continue reading Language Matters: ‘rabid feminism’ & the Oxford Dictionary

Pip ThorntonJanuary 22, 2016Leave a comment

The Geopolitics of Context: Mordor, Russia and Google Translate

Continue reading The Geopolitics of Context: Mordor, Russia and Google Translate

Pip ThorntonJanuary 18, 2016Leave a comment

Questioning the Digital @ The London Conference in Critical Thought 2015

Last week saw the 2015 London Conference in Critical Thought take place at UCL. It was the first LCCT I have been to, and also my first time convening a panel at a conference. Nat O’Grady (Southampton) and I had put together a stream on ‘Questioning the Digital’, a phrase lifted from David Berry’s Critical Theory and the Digital (2014). We had a massive response … Continue reading Questioning the Digital @ The London Conference in Critical Thought 2015

Pip ThorntonJune 29, 2015June 30, 2015Leave a comment

Thinking with Algorithms

Back in February 2015 I was lucky enough to present a paper at a workshop in Durham organised by Louise Amoore and Volha Piotukh from the Durham University Geography Department. Thinking with Algorithms: Cognition and Computation in the work of N. Katherine Hayles (which featured Hayles as a guest and keynote speaker), was an incredibly useful forum in which to present the first conference draft … Continue reading Thinking with Algorithms

Pip ThorntonJune 15, 2015June 14, 2015Leave a comment

Existential Google-Angst UPDATE!

A quick update to my blog earlier today… I wanted to put into context what I’ve talking about in terms of not ‘existing’ on the web. As I said before, I know Google ‘is not the internet’, but it does seem like it sometimes. To show this I created a Gmail account (as a Guest User on my laptop), and then created a WordPress blog. … Continue reading Existential Google-Angst UPDATE!

Pip ThorntonJune 13, 2015Leave a comment

Existential Google-Angst

I posted a blog over at Landscape Surgery yesterday about the challenges of getting indexed by Google without actually logging into Google: “…resisting the charmingly convenient yet data hungry ministrations of the googlebots is proving an existential challenge. I can’t ‘submit my URL’ to Google, or use any analytical or webmaster tools without creating an account, and as result of this, the google spiders are … Continue reading Existential Google-Angst

Pip ThorntonJune 13, 2015June 15, 20151 Comment

Language in the Age of Algorithmic Reproduction

For my first blog post I thought I’d do a little sit-rep as to where I am with my research so far, why it is of interest (to me anyway), and what I hope to achieve with it. I have started this blog in the hope that it will accompany, document and inform my research, and make me write. Which is always a bonus… I … Continue reading Language in the Age of Algorithmic Reproduction

Pip ThorntonJune 11, 2015Leave a comment

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Author: Pip Thornton