Dieser Vortrag ist Teil der Reihe Ringvorlesung Master Intermedia in Zusammenarbeit mit Prof. Dr. Konstanze Schütze (Institut für Kunst an der Pädagogischen Hochschule Karlsruhe) und fand am 04.06.24 im Studio des Zentrum für Informationstechnologie und Medien statt.

Machine learning algorithms harbor discrimination on many levels, not only through biases in data but also how they reproduce these historical inequalities within and beyond machines, often under the guise of value-neutrality, i.e., in black boxes that conceal their own functioning and historicity. In return, this talk addresses the black box allegories of AI systems by tracing the historical connections between cybernetics and logistical capitalism – where their differential impacts are strongly felt and negotiated. Indeed, the black box cannot be unveiled since what lies beneath it are the colonial histories and social disparities the global supply chain operates through, but not without frictions. Working through the complex visuality that the cybernetic black box animates, this talk examines the changing politics of image and futurity via artistic interventions that contest the totalizing impacts of today’s emergent technologies.