[Air-L] CFP Critiquing Big Tech conference (June 6-7 Tilburg)

[Niels Niessen]

CFP Critiquing Big Tech: A Humanities Perspective (Conference)

6 and 7 June 2024, Tilburg, Netherlands


Keynote speaker: Tiziana Terranova (author of After the Internet)

https://www.nica-institute.com/call-for-papers-critiquing-big-tech-a-humanities-perspective-conference/

Organizers: Niels Niessen (Tilburg University), Nuno Atalaia (Radboud
University, Nijmegen), Rianne Riemens (Radboud University)


This conference brings together critiques of how Big Tech invades all
domains of public and private life, transforming those domains in the
process. The conference explores how the humanities can contribute to a
better understanding of this development. At the same time, we are
interested in how humanities research changes in relation to this
development. While critiquing Big Tech, it is important to acknowledge that
for many, platforms like Instagram, Tumblr, and X (Twitter) are places of
consciousness building and activism. It is also safe to say that without
these platforms, movements like MeToo, Trans Liberation, and Black Lives
Matter would not have happened the way they did. Yet while these platforms
help liberate personal and collective life in some respects, ultimately
they are not designed for emancipation, but to maximize user engagement.
The conference examines the ways in which Big Tech interpellates people as
users, through its technologies and its discourses. We will also discuss
potential forms of resistance against this interpellation.



In proposing a humanities perspective on Big Tech, we tackle what we
perceive as a crisis of the human form in the age of large-scale platforms,
personalized AI, and the algorithmic condition. Theorists including
Patricia Ticineto Clough (The User Unconscious), Nick Couldry & Ulises
Mejias (Costs of Connection), and McKenzie Wark (Capitalism Is Dead) have
argued that Big Tech threatens the very integrity and sovereignty of
individual and collective human existence. At the same time, the existence
of both humans and non-humans is threatened by climate change and the
continuous appropriation of the environment for the benefits of Big Tech
and economic growth (as argues for example Mél Hogan in “Big Data
Ecologies”). What does it mean to practice the Humanities in algorithmic
societies facing political and ecological crises? How to understand the
human subject and its relation to technology and the environment in light
of these conditions? How to critique Big Tech’s understanding of the human
subject, its extractive economic model and continuous infrastructural and
spatial expansion, and its visions of the future? How to work towards
alternatives?


The conference somewhat changes up the traditional conference format,
creating more space for conversation and workshops. We ask for short
10-minute individual presentations. During the workshops hosted by the
conference organizers, participants are invited to critically engage with
the methodological, epistemic, and ecological implications of studying Big
Tech. If you are interested in participating in the conference, please fill
out the form on:

https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/H-8AnSFOUBAa5xr17f4MLwF-QTa5AQXpQB-Olfw1Vys/


We ask you to briefly describe (1) the topic of your presentation and
ideally also your object of focus (if your paper is mostly theoretical,
still provide an example of an object you connect to); (2) your
intervention (the argument you plan to develop, or how you envision your
contribution); (3) a brief reflection on methodology and how your
contribution speaks to the changing humanities. In addition, please
indicate your preference for the workshop you would like to attend on day 2
of the conference (How to design a user?; How to study big data ecologies?;
How to de-Google Learning?). Finally, we ask participants to ideally
participate in the full conference. On the evening before the conference
(June 5) we will have an informal dinner (paid for by the organization) in
the center of Tilburg. The conference itself will take place in De Nieuwe
Vorst theater, also in the Tilburg city center.


So to apply, please fill out the form on
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/H-8AnSFOUBAa5xr17f4MLwF-QTa5AQXpQB-Olfw1Vys/


For questions, please email bigtechconference at protonmail.com


Deadline for submission: 9 February, 2024. We will send out conference
invitations by the end of February.