Calculating Empires: Mapping Technology and Power Across Time

Online and in-person lecture, part of the ARCHiVe Online Academy programme, curated by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler.

How can we understand the operations of technology and power in our era? Our technological systems are increasingly complex, interconnected, automated and opaque. The industrial transformations in AI are further concentrating power, while accelerating polarisation and alienation. But these forces are part of a longer set of trajectories. If we are to address the urgent challenges of the contemporary time – including climate catastrophe, colonial wars, and wealth inequality – we need to contend with the interwoven nature of their histories.

In this in-conversation lecture, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler will address how they explored these issues in Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500, their award-winning, large-scale artwork that tracks imperial systems over five centuries. By merging research and design, science and art, Joler and Crawford provoke us to go beyond the current spectacles of AI to ask how we got here—and consider where we might be going.

The lecture will be held in English.

Admission is free, subject to availability. Registration is required:
→ Register to attend the lecture online
→ Reserve your seat to attend in person