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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Workshop — Digital Life Research Program<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Institute for Culture and Society
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Western Sydney University<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Date: Friday March 10, 2017<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Time: 10am – 4.30pm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Venue: EB.G.21, Parramatta South campus<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Technology’s Limits: Automation, Invention, Labour, and the Exhausted Environment<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/events/technologys_limits">https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/events/technologys_limits</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Among its many political preoccupations, 2016 was marked by an obsessive concern with the new powers of the machine to erase human labour and employment. Science fiction dystopias – among them, the French
<i>Trepalium</i> and the Brazilian <i>3%</i> – saddled older anxieties about a world without work to a more novel recognition of resource depletion and scarcity. Academic publishing houses, conference organisers, funding agencies and the press have responded
with a deluge of content covering algorithms, automation and the Anthropocene. Meanwhile, a less conspicuous narrative about the decline of innovation has resurfaced with claims that the rate of fundamental new technology inventions is slowing and jeopardising
long term global productivity returns. What happens when technology hits its limits? Velocity and volume excite machinic economies, but do little to confront some of the core problems and challenges facing planetary labour and life today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">This workshop brings together leading Australian scholars of technology and society with contemporary German and French reflections on the prevailing discourses of technology’s limits. Since the 1990s, Bernard
Stiegler has been a leading philosopher and critic of technology, and in his recent book
<i>Automatic Society</i> he directly tackles problems of automation and algorithms for the distribution of financial and social resources to populations increasingly bereft of economic capital and political agency. Building upon Frankfurt School critical theory
and Kittlerian media theory, contemporary German critique intersects with similar questions by combining investigations of epistemology, history and the technical. The Australian take on these European developments is simultaneously appreciative and critical,
though often oriented toward more regional conditions that arise in part due to different economic, cultural and political relations with Asia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">The morning session of the workshop will introduce current theoretical European work on technology. Daniel Ross will develop a critical introduction to Bernard Stiegler, whose recent work in
<i>Automatic Society</i> and <i>In the Disruption</i> continues to mount a wide-ranging and provocative critique of technology. Armin Beverungen will then offer an overview of his research on algorithmic management and high-frequency trading, with Ned Rossiter
introducing logistical media as technologies of automation and labour control. In the afternoon, Gay Hawkins will outline her theoretical interest in nonhuman and technical objects and their irreducible role in making humans and ecologies. A key empirical
example will be the history of plastic and the emergence of its technical agency and capacity to reconfigure life. Nicholas Carah will follow with a discussion of his latest work on algorithms, brand management and media engineering. The workshop will close
with an audience-driven panel session and discussion. These interventions will be held in conjunction with a close reading of the key texts below.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Attendance numbers will be limited so please register in advance. No registration fee required.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">RSVP by 7 March: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/h8xhxwd">
https://tinyurl.com/h8xhxwd</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Speakers</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Armin Beverungen<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Junior Director at the Digital Cultures Research Lab (DCRL) at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg & Visiting Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Nicholas Carah<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Author of <i>Brand Machines, Sensory Media and Calculative Culture</i> (2016).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Gay Hawkins<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Author of <i>Plastic Water: The Social and Material Life of Bottled Water</i> (2015).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Liam Magee<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Author of <i>Interwoven Cities</i> (2016).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Nicole Pepperell<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Author of <i>Dissembling Capital</i> (forthcoming, 2017).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Daniel Ross<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Translator of Bernard Stiegler’s
<i>Automatic Society</i> (2016), and numerous other works.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Ned Rossiter<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Author of <i>Software, Infrastructure, Labor: A Media Theory of Logistical Nightmares</i> (2016).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Co-chairs: Liam Magee and Ned Rossiter<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Co-convenors of the Institute for Culture and Society’s Digital Life research program.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Recommended Readings<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Frank Pasquale (2017), <a href="http://discoversociety.org/2017/01/03/duped-by-the-automated-public-sphere/">
Duped by the Automated Public Sphere</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Lee Rainer and Janna Anderson [Pew Research Center] (2017),
<a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/02/08/code-dependent-pros-and-cons-of-the-algorithm-age/">
Code-Dependent: Pros and Cons of the Algorithm Age</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Bernard Stiegler (2012), <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12692157/Bernard_Stiegler_Die_Aufkl%C3%A4rung_in_the_Age_of_Philosophical_Engineering_2013_">
Die Aufklärung in the Age of Philosophical Engineering</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Bernard Stiegler (2015), <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12692287/Bernard_Stiegler_Escaping_the_Anthropocene_2015_">
Escaping the Anthroposcene</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Bernard Stiegler (2015), <a href="http://thirdrailquarterly.org/wp-content/uploads/05_Stiegler_TTR5.pdf">
On Automatic Society</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Sonia Sodha [The Guardian] (2017),
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/19/basic-income-finland-low-wages-fewer-jobs">
Is Finland’s basic universal income a solution to automation, fewer jobs and lower wages?</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Related Readings<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Bruce Braun (2014), <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1068/d4313">
A New Urban Dispositif? Governing Life in an Age of Climate Change</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Nick Dyer-Witheford (2013), <a href="https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Labour_Algorithms">
Contemporary Schools of Thought and the Problem of Labour Algorithms</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Victor Galaz (2015), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2015/oct/05/a-manifesto-for-algorithms-in-the-environment">
A Manifesto for Algorithms in the Environment</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Victor Galaz et al. (2017), <a href="http://thebiospherecode.com/">
The Biosphere Code</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Orit Halpern (2015), <a href="https://continentcontinent.cc/index.php/continent/article/view/205">
Cloudy Architectures</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Erich Hörl (2014), <a href="http://www.parrhesiajournal.org/parrhesia20/parrhesia20_horl.pdf">
Prostheses of Desire: On Bernard Stiegler’s New Critique of Projection</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Yuk Hui (2015), <a href="http://www.parrhesiajournal.org/parrhesia23/parrhesia23_hui.pdf">
Algorithmic Catastrophe: The Revenge of Contingency</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">International Labour Organisation (2016),
<a href="http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actemp/downloads/events/2016/singapore_2016_executive_summary.pdf">
ASEAN in Transformation</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Lilly Irani (2015), <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444813511926">
The Cultural Work of Microwork</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">MIT Technology Review (2012),
<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/business-report/the-future-of-work/">The Future of Work</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Cathy O’Neill (2016), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/01/how-algorithms-rule-our-working-lives">
How algorithms rule our working lives</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Elaine Ou (2017), <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-13/working-for-an-algorithm-might-be-an-improvement">
Working for an Algorithm Might Be an Improvement</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">The Guardian (2016), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jul/16/robot-factories-threaten-jobs-millions-garment-workers-south-east-asia-women">
Robot factories could threaten jobs of millions of garment workers</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Tommaso Venturini, Pablo Jensen, Bruno Latour (2015),
<a href="http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/18/2/11.html">Fill in the Gap. A New Alliance for Social and Natural Sciences</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Agenda<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">10:00– 10:10: Liam Magee, Ned Rossiter: Welcome and Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">10:10 – 11:10: Daniel Ross<br>
11:10 – 11:30: Q&A<br>
11:30 – 11:45: Coffee<br>
11:45 – 1:00: Armin Beverungen, Ned Rossiter<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">1:00 – 2:00: Lunch<br>
2:00 – 3:15: Gay Hawkins, Nicholas Carah<br>
3:15 – 4:15: Panel discussion responding to automation: Dan / Gay / Nicholas / Armin / Nicole – Liam & Ned to chair<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">4:15 – 4:30: Closing thoughts, future actions<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">-- </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Ned Rossiter<br>
Professor of Communication<br>
Institute for Culture and Society / School of Humanities and Communication Arts<br>
Western Sydney University<br>
Parramatta Campus<br>
Locked Bag 1797<br>
Penrith NSW 2751<br>
Australia</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"> </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Tel. +61-2-9685-9600</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black">Fax. +61-2-9685-9610</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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