How can we understand the operations of technology and power in our era? Our technological systems are increasingly complex, interconnected, automated and opaque. The industrial transformations in AI are further concentrating power, while accelerating polarization and alienation. But these forces are part of a longer set of trajectories. If we are to address the urgent challenges of the contemporary time – including climate catastrophe, colonial wars, and wealth inequality – we need to contend with the interwoven nature of their histories.
In this lecture, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler will address how they explored these issues in Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500, their award-winning, large-scale research visualization that tracks imperial systems over five centuries. By merging research and design, science and art, Joler and Crawford provoke us to go beyond the current spectacles of AI to ask how we got here—and consider where we might be going.
Bios
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Photo: Cath MuscatKate Crawford
AU
Kate Crawford is an internationally leading scholar of artificial intelligence. She is a professor at USC, a senior principal researcher at MSR-NY, and was the inaugural chair of AI and Justice at the Ecole Normale Superieure. Her award-winning book Atlas of AI has been translated into twelve languages. She leads the Knowing Machines Project, which studies the foundations of AI. Her artworks have been acquired by museums such as MoMA and the V&A, and received the Aryton Prize.
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Vladan Joler
RS
Prof. Dr. Vladan Joler is an academic, researcher and artist whose work blends data investigations, critical cartography, investigative journalism and data visualization. He is a SHARE Foundation co-founder and professor at the New Media Department of the University of Novi Sad. Vladan Joler’s work features in the permanent collections of MoMA, the V&A Museum and the Design Museum in London, and also in the permanent exhibition of the Ars Electronica Center.
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Photo: Aena SchmickFrederike Kaltheuner
DE
Frederike Kaltheuner is an independent expert on emerging technology, policy, and rights. She also serves as the Europe and global governance Lead at the AI Now Institute. With a decade of experience, she has held leadership roles including Technology and Rights Director at Human Rights Watch and Special Adviser to the European Commission. Frederike regularly provides expert evidence to parliaments and comments on technology in international media. She holds an MSc from Oxford and edited Fake AI, a book on AI pseudoscience and hype.
Credits
This project has been developed and is presented in the context of the STARTS in the City project. STARTS in the City has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No. LC-01984766.
