Predictive models based on big data are founded on the idea that knowing the past enables us to predict the future, but what kind of future are we constructing when the models are based on a deepfake version of the past? Correlation has overtaken causation, while homophily shadows differences across these models that are not only applied in social media platforms’ algorithms, but also in policing predictives or risk assessment systems. We discuss how these practices reproduce bias and generate self-fulfilling prophecies with Wendy Chun, professor of New Media, Director of the Digital Democracies Institute and author of numerous books. Is it possible to exit the default world of endless reproducibility and conceive of a different future from what has been left out in the past?

COLOPHON

Host: Neja Berger
Guest: Wendy Chun

Recording and editing: Neja Berger
Music and Audio Mix: Gašper Torkar

Production:
Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art
Ljubljana, 2024

Producer: Marcela Okretič

Part of
Tactics&Practice#15: (un)real data – real effects
Curated by !Mediengruppe Bitnik (Carmen Weisskopf in Domagoj Smoljo)
In collaboration with Janez Fakin Janša

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana.

The post (un)real data | Ep.#2: Could We Stop Reproducing a Deepfake Past? [w/ Wendy Chun] appeared first on Aksioma.