Have you ever observed a divisive, rage-fuelled fight online and wondered about the role technology played in the background? In her most recent book, Discriminating Data (2021), Wendy Chun reveals how polarization is a goal—not an error—within big data and machine learning. These methods, she argues, encode segregation, eugenics, and identity politics through their default assumptions and conditions.
Speaker Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is Simon Fraser University's Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media in the School of Communication and Director of the Digital Democracies Institute. She studied both Systems Design Engineering and English Literature at the University of Waterloo, disciplines that combine and mutate in her work on digital media. Her recent books include Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition (2021), Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media (2016), and Programmed Visions: Software and Memory(2011).
This is the second Critical Tech Talk event in a series of honest dialogues about technological innovation. Produced by the Critical Media Lab at the University of Waterloo, the series is co-sponsored by Communitech, the Office of Research, and faculties of Arts, Environment, Engineering, Health, Math, and Science at the University of Waterloo.
Moderated by Professor Marcel O'Gorman, Brianna I. Wiens, Postdoctoral Researcher in Communication Arts, and Queenie Wu, fourth-year undergraduate in Systems Design Engineering.
This online event includes three parts, with the main speaker event happening from 7 to 8 PM. Find out more and how to register.