Humane Decision Making by Mimi Onuoha

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Across all facets of society, algorithms are being deployed to extend human decision-making. These advances can help us solve complex problems and implicitly make sense of computation patterns. But they can also lack transparency and create new problems and patterns that may be difficult to detect at the moment of implementation. How do we make sense of this tension?

During this workshop, we'll begin with a (brief) overview on algorithms and their widespread use in civic society, and then collectively complete an exercise designed to help disentangle the benefits and trade-offs of algorithmic decision-making in social spaces. By the end, we'll have crafted our own algorithmic decision-making systems, complete with their own advantages and complications.

Bio:

Mimi Onuoha is a Brooklyn-based artist and researcher examining the implications of data collection and computational categorization. Her work uses code, writing, and objects to explore missing data and the ways in which people are abstracted and represented. She has taught at NYU and Bennington College, and most recently has been in residence at Eyebeam, StudioXX, and the Data & Society Research Institute.