Pattern Discrimination (In Search of Media) - Softcover

Apprich, Clemens; Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong; Cramer, Florian; Steyerl, Hito

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1517906458 ISBN 13: 9781517906450

Publisher: Meson Press, 2018

Synopsis

How do “human” prejudices reemerge in algorithmic cultures allegedly devised to be blind to them?

How do “human” prejudices reemerge in algorithmic cultures allegedly devised to be blind to them? To answer this question, this book investigates a fundamental axiom in computer science: pattern discrimination. By imposing identity on input data, in order to filter—that is, to discriminate—signals from noise, patterns become a highly political issue. Algorithmic identity politics reinstate old forms of social segregation, such as class, race, and gender, through defaults and paradigmatic assumptions about the homophilic nature of connection.

Instead of providing a more “objective” basis of decision making, machine-learning algorithms deepen bias and further inscribe inequality into media. Yet pattern discrimination is an essential part of human—and nonhuman—cognition. Bringing together media thinkers and artists from the United States and Germany, this volume asks the urgent questions: How can we discriminate without being discriminatory? How can we filter information out of data without reinserting racist, sexist, and classist beliefs? How can we queer homophilic tendencies within digital cultures?

About this title

About the Author

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media, Simon Fraser University. She is the author of Update to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media.

Hito Steyerl is professor of experimental film and video at the Berlin University of the Arts. She is the author of Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War.

Florian Cramer is applied research professor of new media and their impact on art and design at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. He is the author of What Is Post-Digital.

Clemens Apprich is visiting professor at the Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media, Leuphana University of Lueneburg. He is the author of Technotopia: A Media Genealogy of Net Cultures.

Review

"How are we to contend with the many forms of pattern discrimination in contemporary life? This book shows the complexity of the terrain and reminds us what is at stake."—Kate Crawford, AI Now Institute NYU

"Profound and provocative, this book demonstrates the enduring relevance of theory to contemporary digital dilemmas. Addressing platform capitalism, democratic decay, and the future of labor and play, the authors illuminate the alien intelligence of big data, pattern recognition, machine learning, and artificial intelligence."—Frank Pasquale, University of Maryland

About this edition

• Publisher: Meson Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1517906458
• ISBN 13: 9781517906450
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144