Philosopher of technology Yuk Hui introduces ideas from his new book developing political thought to address today's planetary crises. Talk held at Birkbeck, University of London 1 Nov 2024. Talk followed by dialogue with Joel McKim, Director of the Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology. 

Yuk Hui, professor of philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, returns to Birkbeck to speak about the ideas developed in his soon to be published book Machine and Sovereignty: For a Planetary Thinking (University of Minnesota Press, 2024). 

What is "planetary thinking" today? Arguing that a new approach is urgently needed, Yuk Hui develops a future-oriented mode of political thought that encompasses the unprecedented global challenges we are confronting: the rise of artificial intelligence, the ecological crisis, and intensifying geopolitical conflicts.

Event sposored by the Vasari Reserch Centre for Art and Technology and the Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network (EHCN).

Yuk Hui Machine and Sovereignty Birkbeck 1 November 2024

Good-Enoughing: Software Work Cultures at a Middle Tech Company

Contrary to much of the popular discourse, not all technology is seamless and awesome; some of it is simply “good enough.” In this lecture, Prof. Paula Bialski (University of St. Galen) offers an ethnographic study of software developers at a non-flashy, non-start-up corporate tech company. Their stories reveal why software isn’t perfect and how developers communicate, care, and compromise to make software work—or at least work until the next update. Exploring the culture of good enoughness at a technology firm she calls “MiddleTech,” Bialski shows how doing good-enough work is a collectively negotiated resistance to the organizational ideology found in corporate software settings.

Paula Bialski Good-Enoughing: Software Work Cultures 12 February 2025

The Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology is based at Birkbeck, University of London. It supports research projects, hosts related events, and has a range of unique connections to other media research institutions, large and small museums and galleries, and the creative industries. For more information: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/vasari/about/

Yuk Hui Machine and Sovereignty Birkbeck 1 November 2024

Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology

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