Platform Practices and Predictive Seeing 2

Session Submission Type: Open Panel

Abstract

Large image collections ranging from Sloan Sky Survey, through to ImageNet play a vital role in contemporary economies of knowledge. Yet actual image practices, operations and techniques pertaining to such collections remain relatively occluded. How do data-oriented visual cultures also re-organise ‘seeing’ in the light of prediction? This panel invites contributions dealing with routine, habitual and everyday data practices that have developed in relation to large image collections in contemporary sciences, industry, media, government and cultural institutions. We welcome research working with or analysing image-sets in their predictive transformations across these domains. Here contributions might address how the formatting and processing of images collections and streams – for border control facial recognition, discrimination of objects in robotic manufacture, earth system observation, smart city urban infrastructure and so on – create the material conditions for predictive models. Everyday data practices concerned with collecting, archiving, ordering or moving through image collections or images streams would be relevant topics. How do STS concepts of knowledge infrastructure, platform, centre of calculation, algorithm or large technical system help us understand changes in the operational role of images in prediction, whether, for example, in earth science or social network media? Re-conceptualisation of ontologies of seeing, image, data, model, prediction and knowledge are important to the aims of the panel. The panel aims to support conversation traversing some of the different disciplinary approaches coming from media and cultural studies, art-design and STS to this topic.

Sub Unit

• Papers for Open Panels / Platform Practices and Predictive Seeing

Chair

• Anna Munster, University of New South Wales

Individual Presentations

• Resisting Visualizations. A cross-species and cross-field comparative exploration – Part 2 - Ann Rudinow Saetnan, NTNU; Rocco Bellanova, University of Amsterdam

• The Techno-Ontology of Prognosis - Karin Sellberg, University of Queensland

• The View from the GPU: Graphics Processing Units Solve the Unsolvable - Adrian Mackenzie, Lancaster University

• Visualizing transnational threats across the internet - Andrew Clement, University of Toronto

• When Images Become Logic - Monica Monin, University of Technology Sydney

Session Organizers

• Adrian Mackenzie, Lancaster University

• Anna Munster, University of New South Wales