Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 14-17th December 2016 Program Index

to contribute to the consumption paradigm. This results in unique formulations of democratic strategies to
foster lateral collaborations between disenfranchised communities attempting to influence policy change.
GJ Breyley
“Intensive Collectivity”: Collaborative art and music practices in urban Iran
This paper examines the practices of some independent artists and musicians working collaboratively in
contemporary Tehran. These artists work across various media, with musicians mostly producing electronic
music and sound art. While not “representative” of artistic practices in Iran, they illustrate how people may
use creativity to respond to and live with various pressures of urban life. The artists concerned are mostly
from relatively affluent backgrounds and, in some ways, privileged in their creative and social possibilities.
Their collective consciousness of this privilege – and of the comparative hardships of those in their city who
experience poverty and disadvantage – contributes to the values expressed in their artistic practice, such as
supportive collaboration, artistic independence and creative “honesty”. This paper focuses on recent
examples of collaborative art and music produced independently in Tehran, such as Idlefon’s 2014 CD,
“Intensive Collectivity Known As City”.
Chamee Yang Seeing the Future in the Mirror of the Past: The Reclamation of “Creative” History in Seoul (2006-
2011)
Taking the issue with the recent discussions surrounding the “Creative City”, I attempt to provide a
historically informed analysis of this new urban policy discourse. Focusing on my case study of the Creative
Design City project in Seoul (2006-2011), I demonstrate how the project evoked references to the past to
propagate itself as an antcolonial nationalistic project. At the same time, a strategy was deployed to
negotiate the present with the past, which was by “emplotting” the distant past to endogenize the creative
history in Korea and to legitimate the city’s technocentric future. Following Massey and Benjamin’s method
of interpreting the city as texts, I trace multiple forms of cultural texts that interweave the exhibitionary
complex in Seoul. Ultimately, I aim to enhance the relevance of interdisciplinary tactics in our task of
decoding global city space and discourses.
4H
Data cultures and digital theory (Chair, Janneke Adema)
Ted Striphas
What is an Algorithm? Keywords and the Politics of Computational Decision-Making
The word “algorithm” entered the English language in the 13th century and was, until recently, a fairly
obscure term, its usage confined mainly to mathematicians and engineers. But since 1960 its presence in
English has increased more than tenfold (Google NGram Viewer, 2014), suggesting the word may now be
tending toward conventionality. This is affirmed by news reports about algorithms and the roles they play in
online activities ranging from stock trading to social networking, searching, shopping, and more. But what is
an algorithm? Computer scientist John MacCormick defines the word as “a precise recipe that specifies the
exact sequence of steps required to solve a problem” (2012: 3). His definition squares with dominant
contemporary usage, as demonstrated by dictionaries and other reference matter. “Algorithm” typically
refers to a set of step-by-step procedures intended to formalize decision making, procedures that are often
translated into mathematical formulae and implemented computationally. Inspired by the work of Raymond
Williams – particularly his writings on keywords (1983), as well as his material on residual, dominant, and
emergent cultural forms (1977) – this essay argues there is more at stake when one utters the word
“algorithm” today. It is concerned with latencies of meaning that subsist and persist in contemporary usage
as “traces without an inventory” (Gramsci 1971: 324). The piece proceeds by following the word “algorithm”
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