Miyazaki: Take Back the Algorithms!

In this video-abstract, Shintaro Miyazaki introduces his article ‘Take Back the Algorithms! A Media Theory of Commonistic Affordance’

This essay critiques the ‘black-boxing’ of many computational processes, which are argued to result in a kind of ‘unaffordability’ of algorithms. By engaging with current theoretical debates on ‘commoning’ – signifying a non-profit-oriented, solidarity-based approach to sharing, maintaining, and disseminating knowledge and experience – the essay offers a formulation of commonistic affordance in algorithmic contexts. Through the discussion of widely used computational tools such as the Viola-Jones object detection framework, radical steps towards a ‘making affordable’ of algorithms are outlined, and the widespread corporate propertisation of computation processes is contrasted with a speculative vision of algorithmic commoning.

Shintaro Miyazaki is a Senior Researcher of the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures at the Academy of Art & Design in Basel FHNW, Switzerland. He obtained a PhD in media theory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2012). His works oscillate between scholarly work and practice-based research projects, with a focus on media technology. His current interests include cybernetics, design theory, fictional world-building, machine learning, self-organization, commoning and non-solution-oriented co-design.

MT3-1-cover This article is from the special issue, Rethinking Affordance (Media Theory 3.1), edited by Ashley Scarlett and Martin Zeilinger.