The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

AI images are circulating more and more online and sometimes we can't tell the 'real' from AI-generated. But as I discuss with the inimitable Gillian Rose and Roland Meyer, we need to think about AI images beyond their indexicality, i.e. the idea that a photograph is a direct representation of the subject it captures. In this episode, we grapple with AI generators that are part of extractive, colonial industries, and how that shapes the affect of AI visuals. Recorded Jan 29, 2025. Released Feb 24, 2025.It’s a flat world. The Synthetic Realities of Sorahttps://rrrreflect.org/special-issue-1/its-a-flat-world-the-synthetic-realities-of-sora“It’s a flat world. The Synthetic Realities of AI Video” by Roland Meyer at Hidden Layers 24https://vimeo.com/1011342969The New Value of the ArchiveAI Image Generation and the Visual Economy of ‘Style’https://image-journal.de/the-new-value-of-the-archive/“Generic Pastness. AI Image Synthesis and the Virtualization of the Archive”https://vimeo.com/873978726Models All The Way Down by Christo Buschek & Jer Thorphttps://knowingmachines.org/models-all-the-wayGillian Rose, Professor of Human GeographyFellow of the British Academy and Academy of Social Scienceswebpage: https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/grose.htmlbluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/profgillian.bsky.socialblog: visualmethodculture.wordpress.com

In this episode Jathan Sadowski discusses the 'risk industry' as imagined by FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) and the asymmetries they create. Recorded January 15, 2025. Released February 10, 2025.The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalismhttps://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite/paperThis Machine Kills: A podcast about technology and political economy https://soundcloud.com/thismachinekillspod 

Charles Logan is the go-to person to talk to about how AI is infiltrating the many layers of education, from K-12 to universities. In this conversation, we learn our lessons; we talk about what Ed Tech is, its promise and hype, and (ultimately) how to refuse it as professors and teach students to resist it as well. We also wonder about 'AI-proofing' the classroom and wether this is the way to deal with its onslaught. Recorded January 14, 2025. Released January 27, 2025.Applying the Baldwin Test to Ed-Techhttps://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/applying-the-baldwin-test-to-ed-techThe Captivating Creature from Educaria and Other Scary Storieshttps://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/the-captivating-creature-from-educaria-and-other-scary-stories Iggy Peck, Architect Is an AI Doomer and Other Things I Struggle to Talk with My Kids Abouthttps://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/iggy-peck-architect-is-an-ai-doomer-and-other-things-i-struggle-to-talk-with-my-kids-about Lessons on How to Practice Everyday Resistance and Refusalhttps://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/lessons-on-how-to-practice-everyday-resistance-and-refusal You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say.https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/05/1079009/you-need-to-talk-to-your-kid-about-ai-here-are-6-things-you-should-say

In this episode I speak with Dillon Mahmoudi and Anthony Levenda about the relationship (feedback loop) between data and urban planning. We focus on the idea of 'storying' data to make it compelling and to get past the inertia of data delivered as mere stats or numbers that have little resonance and don't (or no longer) move people to action, towards better living conditions. Recorded January 13, 2025. Released January 20, 2025. The urban-tech feedback loop: a surveillance and development data-walk in South Lake Unionhttps://dillonm.io/papers/the-urban-tech-feedback-loop/ The Amazon Warehouse https://dillonm.io/papers/the-amazon-warehouse/ 

I got to speak with the brilliant Ali Alkhatib about his blog post "defining AI" -- an object, subject, metaphor, and discursive formation used amongst all of us trying to figure out how to grapple with AI's ownership, deployments, and impacts. Who gets to define AI? Is it just computer scientists? What are the stakes of having it defined only technologically? Recorded December 23, 2025. Released January 13, 2025.Ali Alkhatib (website)https://ali-alkhatib.com/Defining AIhttps://ali-alkhatib.com/blog/defining-ai

I start the new year with an episode on "data colonialism". I had the great pleasure of speaking with Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry about our contemporary relationship to corporations, about the idea that there’s no capitalism without colonialism (and vice versa), about how human lives are being exploited these days, and about data being a cheap resource. Recorded December 16, 2024. Released January 6, 2025. Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Backhttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo216184200.html

Such a delight speaking with Déborah López and Hadin Charbel, incredible artists-architects-scholars as investigators of future possibilities in light of climate change rapidly changing arctic (and other) landscapes. We discuss a range of art projects, from large installations to projections to speculative fiction, and how these modes and conditions can help us think and feel about alternate endings -- in our teaching and in our day to day embodied, lived realities. Recorded Dec 12, 2024. Released Dec 30, 2024. Artists websitehttps://pareid.com/Artists Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/pareid.architecture/ Pareid creates organ-like installation from corrugated plastic tubes in Madridhttps://www.dezeen.com/2022/04/20/pareid-everywhere-nowhere-installation-urvanity/Re: Arctichttps://vimeo.com/469736816?&login=true 

In this episode, I spoke with Chris Gilliard (@hypervisible) about AI’s encroachment on universities and what this means for collaboration — i.e. learning, writing, thinking and feeling. This conversation puts out a warning of sorts to universities adopting AI given that, as a technology, it is built off of stolen materials, relies on extraction and colonial labour practices, is racist, misogynist and transphobic in its outputs, and terrible for the environment — all issues the university claim to value and fight against? Recorded Dec 11, 2024. Released Dec 16, 2024. “ChatGPT Should Not Exist” by David Golumbia (Dec 14, 2022)https://davidgolumbia.medium.com/chatgpt-should-not-exist-aab0867abace“Practico-inertia” by Rob Horning (March 1, 2024)https://robhorning.substack.com/p/practico-inertia “Critical keywords of AI in education” by Ben Williamson (November 8, 2024 )https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/ “Big AI Companies Need Higher Ed … but Does Higher Ed Need Them?” by Collin Bjork (Dec 2, 2024)https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/12/02/universities-must-beware-reliance-big-ai-opinion

It was a real honour and joy to speak with someone whose work has so significantly shaped my own (and many of us writing about data centers): Jennifer Holt joined me for a chat about US cloud policy. The Cloud is understood in this episode through the lens of policy, which means we grapple with who owns data, its infrastructures and our data futures. We also talked a bit about what the latest US elections might mean for Big Tech... Recorded Nov 20, 2024. Released Nov 25, 2024.Cloud Policy: A History of Regulating Pipelines, Platforms, and Datahttps://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262548069/cloud-policy/ CMSW podcast: Jennifer Holt, “Cloud Policy: Anatomy of a Regulatory Crisis”https://cmsw.mit.edu/podcast-jennifer-holt-cloud-policy-anatomy-regulatory-crisis/