Algorithms unfold as key agents in the construction and operation of surveillance capitalism, becoming powerful autonomous governance entities invisible to the eyes of the global citizenship. Despite of its crucial role in processing and executing most of our society's daily individual and collective transactions, we have very little information on the design and functionality of this ubiquitous intangible agents and about the deep social, economical and emotional implications that its actions have over our day to day lives.

This two-day workshop aims at revealing, connecting and understanding the many actors that come together in the configuration of the surveillance capitalism ecosystem by forensically analyzing the way governmental agencies and corporations take over networks and algorithms in order to surveil, profile and control millions of citizens on a regular basis.

about the workshop holder

Joana Moll

Works - www.janavirgin.com/index.html

Critical Interface Politics - crit.hangar.org

She is an artist and a researcher from Barcelona. Her work critically explores the way post-capitalist narratives affect the alphabetization of machines, humans and ecosystems. Her main research topics include Internet materiality, surveillance, online tracking, critical interfaces and language. She has lectured, performed and exhibited her work in different museums, art centers, universities, festivals and publications around the world. Furthermore she is the co-founder of the Critical Interface Politics Research Group at HANGAR [Barcelona], co-founder of The Institute for the Advancement of Popular Automatisms and member of the Scientific and Artistic Committee of the Antiatlas des Frontières. She is currently a visiting lecturer at Potsdam Universität and Escola Superior d'Art de Vic [Barcelona].

Ramon Sangüesa

Research - www.equipocafeina.com

Data Transparency Lab - www.datatransparencylab.org

Ramon holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and a postgraduate in Science Communication. He is a professor of the Technical University of Catalonia, affiliate researcher at the Sociology Department of Columbia University [New York] and Senior Fellow of the Strategic Innovation Lab [Ontario Colleg of Art and Design, Toronto]. He is also the coordinator of the Data Transparency Lab [DTL] a joint initiative by MIT, Mozilla and Telefónica I+D. DTL articulates a community of researchers, designers, community leaders, business people and policy makers to develop tools that can help users to know which use their personal is put to to and by who and why. Organized as a distributed lab, it supports research and innovation in collaboration with world-class universities through the annual DTL grants programme.