Article:
From cloudy logic to logistical system: Algorimages, black boxes, and the socio-technical infrastructure of platforms

Abstract

This article argues that the critical study of algorithms must shift its focus from solving the problem of the ‘black box’ to seeing the structures that surround and pose it as a problematic in the first place. By mapping the movements of what I call algorimages, and the socio-technical infrastructures through which they circulate, the apparently ‘hidden’ imperatives of algorithms are made visible. Through the case study of Twitter, this article undertakes a critical, materialist analysis of algorimages as logistics, excavating their technical substrates and social conditions of emergence within transformations of the capitalist mode of production since the 1970s.

Download icon

Published in:

Preferred Citation
BibTex
Hansson Nilson, Leo: From cloudy logic to logistical system: Algorimages, black boxes, and the socio-technical infrastructure of platforms. In: NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies, Jg. 12 (2023), Nr. 1, S. 152-169. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19757.
@ARTICLE{Hansson Nilson2023,
 author = {Hansson Nilson, Leo},
 title = {From cloudy logic to logistical system: Algorimages, black boxes, and the socio-technical infrastructure of platforms},
 year = 2023,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19757}",
 volume = 12,
 address = {Marburg},
 journal = {NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies},
 number = 1,
 pages = {152--169},
}
license icon

As long as there is no further specification, the item is under the following license: Creative Commons - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen