How to become a high-tech anti-discrimination activist collective!

This is a LIT project, developed for the Ars Electronica Festival 2020. New technologies have infiltrated all aspects of our life and offer a vast range of improvements, reliefs and efficiencies to their users. However, contrary to mainstream perceptions, algorithms propelling the performance of such technologies neither function in neutral ways nor treat all people equally. They are biased to the same extent as the structures, institutions and developers producing them. Thus, systemic racism and sexism are inscribed – most often unconsciously – in the modes and outputs of technologies. This project addresses this issue and asks how discriminations in design and use of technology can be overcome. Two lecture performances by Safiya Umoja Noble and Lisa Nakamura interrogate how digital media (re)shape perceptions of race, ethnicity, and identity in general. They unpack the systemic racism and sexism inscribed into new technologies and offer perspectives on how we can find alternative, more equal, approaches to tech developments. Four participatory workshops with experts from different fields – Adriaan Odendaal, Adriana Torres Topaga, Andrea Maria Handler, Astrid Mager, Doris Allhutter, Hong Phuc Dang, Karla Zavala, Martyna Lorenc, Nushin Isabelle Yazdani – will guide the transfer from analysis to practice. We intend to initiate a creative conversation and a reciprocal exchange of knowledge between all experts, facilitators and workshop participants.