{poem}.py : a critique of linguistic capitalism
How much does poetry cost? What is the worth of language in a digital age? Is quality measured on literary value or exchange value, the beauty of hand-crafted, hard-wrung words, or how many click-throughs those (key)words can attract and how much money they earn the company who sells them? But haven’t words always been sold? As soon as they became written down, moveable and transferable … Continue reading {poem}.py : a critique of linguistic capitalism
Living with Algorithms workshop
Mike Duggan and I have convened a workshop which will take place in London tomorrow (9th June 2016) on the subject of Living with Algorithms. A couple of people have been unable to make it at short notice, which is a huge shame, but it now gives me the opportunity to present and get feedback on a new project I’ve been working on called {poem}.py. … Continue reading Living with Algorithms workshop
Feminist perspectives on global politics, in poems
Originally posted on feminist academic collective:
Tiina Vaittinen & Saara Särmä We have just finished teaching a course on feminist perspectives on global politics at the University of Tampere, with an international group of students with different disciplinary backgrounds. During the course, we introduced the students to a wide range of readings on feminist IR, and towards the end of the course Saara gave them a creative… Continue reading Feminist perspectives on global politics, in poems
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
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)
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
The Geopolitics of Context: Mordor, Russia and Google Translate
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
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
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 thornton art & research 