‘The Subversion of Paradoxes’ — A 2018 Retrospective: Part I (Ch. 2/10)
Chapter 2 — Beyond Algorithms: The Futures of Automation, Work & Identity
Ahead of the upcoming 5th anniversary edition of IAM Weekend (March 21–23, 2019 in Barcelona), in this 10-chapter retrospective we recap the key learnings, activities and next steps that emerged from our 2018 research theme: The Subversion of Paradoxes. In this chapter we present the key learnings from the ‘Beyond Algorithms’ session of our annual event.
When identity is increasingly in flux, and when our relationship to automation and algorithms is full of contradictions — does technology adapt to us or do we adapt to technology? — automation, work and identity overlap to shape both individual and collective realities.
In this session, artists LaTurbo Avedon, Meriem Bennani and Robert Walker, as well as Kate Coughlan and Dan Ramsden from the BBC, challenged the IAM Weekend 18 audience to subvert these paradoxes and contradictions on the futures of work, identity and automation.
Here the four key learnings from this session:
1. Your data is more valuable than the services you give it to
2. Internet subcultures are there own form of cultural diasporas
3. A post-automation world calls for new types, characters and methods of value exchange
4. Designers need to be aware of their social and political responsibilities, particularly to promote criticality and to avoid tech addiction and media illiteracy
The 4 quotes from where these key learnings come from:
“It still surprises me every day, how people have yet to take a firm position about their personal data. I will say it again, and again. Your data is more valuable than the services you give it to.Your data is more valuable than the services that you give it to.”
LaTurbo Avedon, avatar artist
“In the selection of suggested videos … your history is combined with the search history of similar users. The idea alone of similar users … is [like] diasporas that are maybe connected by other things than country of origin, which can be subcultures that are connected by a community around the world that has similar taste.”
Meriem Bennani, artist
“If robots take the blue collar jobs and AI takes the white collar jobs, the occupations of people will be something new. And crypto enables a multitude of value exchange. Humans have always engaged in deep play … so the future of work will be deep work: the remaking of values, via global, distributed, consensus networks.”
Robert Walker, artist
“Our phones are powerful tools that can connect and empower us, but only when used consciously. How can we empower people to use their devices rather than letting their devices use them? How can we design for reflection and critical thought? How can we design for better futures? Or even better, how can we fix the internet?”
Kate Coughlan and Dan Ramsden, BBC
Watch the full talk | Read more on ‘IAM x BBC: How To Fix The Internet’ creative partnership in Chapter 7
‘The Subversion of Paradoxes’ — A 2018 Retrospective is a 10-chapter retrospective where we recap the key learnings, activities and next steps that emerged from IAM’s 2018 research theme.
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👉 Join us for IAM Weekend 19, our annual meeting for creative agents of change who care about the futures of the internet(s) where you can discover, be inspired and interconnect with diverse perspectives around our research theme for 2019: ‘The Quantumness of Archipelagos’.
