Vladan Joler

Engines in new extractives

Vladan Joler, technologist and new media professor discusses the anatomy of an AI system.

Wednesday 23.03.2022

More from the speaker

17th December 2021: „Planetary scale Systems: From the internet packet to the algorithmic factory”

23rd February 2022: „Planetary scale systems: Anatomy and geology of media technologies”

23rd March 2022: „Planetary scale systems: Engines of new extractivism” 

Empowered by the digital extractivism tools of the information age, everything becomes a potential frontier for expansion and extraction. From the depth of DNA code in every single cell of the human organism to vast frontiers of human emotions, behavior and social relations, to nature as a whole—everything becomes the territory for the new extractivism. At this moment in the 21st century, we see a new form of extractivism that is well underway: one that reaches into the furthest corners of the biosphere and the deepest layers of human cognitive and affective being. Traditional colonial practices of control over critical assets, trade routes, natural resources and exploitation of human labor are still deeply embedded in the contemporary supply chains, logistics and assembly lines of digital content, products and infrastructure. Those relations define future development and distribution of wealth and power on a planetary scale.

The series of lectures is hosted by the University of Belgrade / Faculty of Political Sciences.

Organized in partnership with:

Vladan Joler is technologist and new media professor. He is the founder of the SHARE Foundation and a professor at the New Visual Media department at Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He runs the SHARE Lab, a research laboratory for studying data with the purpose of exploring different social and technical aspects, invisible infrastructure, algorithm transparency, labor exploitation, and different phenomena that emerged with the development and use of modern technology. This research included detailed analysis of business models, personal information exploitation processes, forms of hidden labor, surveillance economy, and algorithms hidden behind the walls of companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. This specific line of action represents a fusion of investigative and artistic approach and contains a wide array of different methodologies, a mixture of cyber forensic methods, data analysis and data visualization, cartography, media theory, and philosophy.

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