This lecture is the final public event for the series Recipes for a Technological Undoing, an extracurricular programme organized by students at the Sandberg Instituut and Rietveld Academie. For more info see: extraintra.nl/initiative/undoing

On Wednesday January 12th 2022, Dr. Ramon Amaro will present an interactive lecture based on his forthcoming book The Black Technical Object: On Machine Learning and the Aspiration of Black Being. Amaro digs into the history of statistical analysis and uncovers a history of data being used to impose racial hierarchies and create methods of human sorting and population control. By tracing this history, he contends that “machine learning bias” isn’t a new issue. Rather, it’s part of a pervasive logic of statistical sorting that makes use of contemporary technologies to enact its aims, be they colonial, eugenic or some other mechanism. He ends with a theoretical analysis of black negation and asks - what needs to be altered to fully aspire? Instead of abandoning machine learning altogether, can we live through such processes and simultaneously enact another sense of being?

You are invited to join this virtual event, and are encouraged to consider the following brief preparation:

In preparation, I ask that each student bring either a physical (preferable), digital, or cultural ‘object’ of their choosing. This object can be anything. However, I ask that each student identify one historical fact (preferably technical, mathematical, or cultural) associated either directly or indirectly with their chosen object. The historical fact should originate before 2000, however the object can be from any time period.

Dr. Ramon Amaro’s writing, research and practice emerge at the intersections of Black Study, psychopathology, digital culture, and the critique of computational reason. He draws on Frantz Fanon’s theory of sociogenic alienation to problematize the de-localisation of the Black psyché in contemporary computational systems, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. Ramon’s research pulls away from notions of psychic negation, as set forth by the Fanonian model of representation, to investigate alternative modes of relation between humans, race and technology. His ultimate aim is to develop new methodologies for the study of human centered technology. Dr. Amaro has held research residencies at Het Niew Instituut, Piet Zwarte Instituut, and he participated in the Schemas of Uncertainty research group at the Sandberg Instituut.

The Black Technical Object: Lecture by Ramon Amaro