Against infrasomatization: towards a critical theory of algorithms

We now live within a horizon of interpretability determined in large part by the capture of data and its articulation in and through algorithms. This novel space of experience and meaning creates a new envelope for economic valorisation and leads to new forms of control and exploitation – and subsequently to new sites for social conflict. I want to argue that we can use critical theory for deepening our thinking about algorithms and data and understand how they manifest themselves in everyday life. Indeed, to think about data, and especially a “data politics” requires one to think across multiple levels of computational systems. To think about data we have to think beyond data