On 15 July at 18:00 I will be guest in the lecture series of the CRC “Affective Societies” in Berlin. The series discusses “affective publics” and I will talk about “Understanding the affect of algorithmic publics”. I look at the concepts of affect that are at work in widely discussed affective technologies, such as Cambridge Analytica’s predictions or so called “dark patterns” that aim at manipulating users of digital media. I will show that these concepts of affectivity conform to a very specific view on affect that is driven more by computational feasibility rather than social adequacy. I will present a different reading of these technologies based on affect theories from cultural theory.

The lecture as well as the rest of the series is open for participation online!