Tuesday 21 November 2023
Black Box Cartography by Vladar Joler
Parco Studio and Krisis Publishing host the presentation of Black Box Cartography – A critical cartography of the Internet and beyond with the author Vladar Joler* introduced by Matteo Cremonesi**
Tuesday November 21th – Doors open at 6:30. Talk at 7:00pm
In recent years, our online environment has become increasingly populated by artificial agents of various forms. Our ability to understand and investigate such systems is becoming increasingly important as more and more processes in our lives are mode- rated by AI-based technologies and complex algorithms. However, our understanding of them is still extremely limited.
Over the past few years, Vladan Joler has been working (with the help of a network of data analysts, media theorists and cyber forensic experts) to bring to light some of the hidden layers of these systems. From the invisible algorithmic factory of Facebook to the visual and conceptual assemblage of a new extraction model, Joler’s representational tactics take us into the depths of today’s technological ecosystems. Drawing on the tradition of critical cartography, his maps attempt to unfold the black box of digital infrastructures. Thus, a seemingly simple and innocuous device like the Amazon Echo reports on the exploitation of natural and human resources, material and immaterial forms of extractivism, AI taxonomy and classification systems.
Black Box Cartography presents, for the first time together, Vladan Joler’s most important projects: Facebook Algorithmic Factory (2016, with SHARE Lab), Anatomy of an AI System (2018, with Kate Crawford), The Nooscope Manifested (2020, with Matteo Pasquinelli), and New Extractivism (2020).
Buy Black Box Cartography In recent years, our online environment has become increasingly populated by artificial agents of various forms. Our ability to understand and investigate such systems is becoming increasingly important as more and more processes in our lives are mode- rated by AI-based technologies and complex algorithms. However, our understanding of them is still extremely limited.
Over the past few years, Vladan Joler has been working (with the help of a network of data analysts, media theorists and cyber forensic experts) to bring to light some of the hidden layers of these systems. From the invisible algorithmic factory of Facebook to the visual and conceptual assemblage of a new extraction model, Joler’s representational tactics take us into the depths of today’s technological ecosystems. Drawing on the tradition of critical cartography, his maps attempt to unfold the black box of digital infrastructures. Thus, a seemingly simple and innocuous device like the Amazon Echo reports on the exploitation of natural and human resources, material and immaterial forms of extractivism, AI taxonomy and classification systems.
Black Box Cartography presents, for the first time together, Vladan Joler’s most important projects: Facebook Algorithmic Factory (2016, with SHARE Lab), Anatomy of an AI System (2018, with Kate Crawford), The Nooscope Manifested (2020, with Matteo Pasquinelli), and New Extractivism (2020).
*Vladan Joler, is the director of SHARE Lab and professor at the Department of New Media at the University of Novi Sad. SHARE Lab is a research and data investigation laboratory dedicated to exploring various technical and social aspects of algorithmic transparency, digital labor exploitation, invisible infrastructures, black boxes, and other contemporary phenomena at the intersection of technology and society. Joler’s works are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Design Museum in London, and the permanent exhibition at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz. His work has been exhibited in over a hundred international exhibitions at institutions and events such as ZKM, XXII Triennale di Milano, HKW, Vienna Biennale, V&A, transmediale, Ars Electronica, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and the European Parliament in Brussels.
**Matteo Cremonesi is involved in art and new media, with a particular focus on the social and political implications that new technologies generate in the contemporary world. He is a lecturer in “Cybernetics and Information Theory” at the Brera Academy. He is a member of the artistic collective IOCOSE, with which he has presented works at various national and international venues. Established in 2006, the group organizes liminal actions aimed at subverting ideologies, practices, and processes of identification and meaning construction, conceptualizing streets, the internet, and word of mouth as battlegrounds.
***Krisis Publishing is an editorial and curatorial platform that investigates the impact of media and technology on contemporary societies. Each project unfolds as an inquiry into a specific issue in the field of visual culture and representation policies.
Krisis Publishing has edited and published among others, Atlante dei Classici Padani (2015), Entreprecariat (2018), Adversarial Feelings (2019), James Ballard – All that mattered was sensation (2019), AI&Conflicts (2021), Il corpo virtuale (2022), Ecologia come testo, testo come ecologia (2023).
