Algorithmic Antagonisms: Resistance, Reconfiguration, And​ Renaissance for Computational Life

Editors: Luke Heemsbergen (luke.h@deakin.edu.au), Emiliano Treré​ (TrereE@cardiff.ac.uk) & Gabriel Pereira (gpereira@cc.au.dk)​

Check the full CfP here: tinyurl.com/1kcs2tzb​

What are the ways in which algorithms are​ being deployed tactically to provocative ends? And, just as​ importantly, are these sustainable as activist or political practice?​

This issue will consider these trends and surrounding issues in order​ to introduce new ways of thinking about algorithmic politics in​ tactical and discrete terms. It hopes to open critical data and​ algorithm studies in ways that might reconfigure how critical​ scholarship approaches the algorithm in tactical terms as networked​ media tools that are antagonistic. We ask for submissions that​ consider the design of algorithms not as finished solutions that​ structure the world, but as something troubling – in a meaningful and​ helpful way – that might better inform our understanding of the​ capacities and limits of algorithmic life.​

We are particularly looking forward to critical engagements with​ algorithmic practice, which may include feminist theory,​ de/post-colonial theory, critical race theory, queer theory,​ indigenous theory, perspectives from the Global South, and others.​

The issue looks to submissions including but not limited to…

-​ Agonistic and antagonistic algorithm design

– Algorithms as culture​ (and critical responses to algorithmic culture) – Algorithmic practice​ of the everyday

– Activist algorithmic science and practice

-​ Adversarial algorithmic externalities

– Standpoint data justice

-​ Tactical algorithmic media

– Forms of algorithmic resistance and​ antagonistic algorithm design in the Global South

– Applied​ evolutionary computation

– Feminist and antirracist algorithmic theory​ and practice

– Disaffected technologies and technologists

– Artistic​ forms of response to algorithmic culture

– Antagonism of digital,​ algorithmic, and tech labourers​

Proposed Timeline​

  • 28 February 2021: Abstracts (400-500 words) due for submission to guest editors​
  • 21 March 2021: Invitation to submit full papers sent to selected​ authors, with feedback on abstracts as applicable​
  • 31 July 2021: Full papers sent by authors for Peer Review​
  • 15 October 2021: Peer review returned to authors​
  • (Up to) 30 Jan 2021: Final papers due for those papers that have​ passed/responded to review.​
  • May 2022: Special Issue comes out on MIA