Informatics of Domination is an experimental collection addressing formations of power that manifest through technical systems and white capitalist patriarchy in the twenty-first century. The volume takes its name from a chart in Donna J. Haraway’s canonical 1985 essay “A Manifesto for Cyborgs.” Haraway theorizes the informatics of domination as a feminist, diagrammatic concept for situating power and a world system from which the figure of the cyborg emerges. Informatics of Domination builds on Haraway’s chart as an open structure for thought, inviting fifty scholars, artists, and creative writers to unfold new perspectives. Their writings take on a variety of forms, such as essays on artificial intelligence, disability and protest, and transpacific imaginaries; conversations with an AI trained on Black oral history; a three-dimensional response to Mexico-US border tensions; hand-drawn images on queer autotheory; ecological fictions about gut microbiomes and wet markets; and more. Together, the writings take up the unfinished structure of the chart in order to proliferate critiques of white capitalist patriarchal power with the study of information systems, networks, and computation today. This volume includes an afterword by Haraway.
Contributors. Dalida MarÍa Benfield, Zach Blas, Ama Josephine Budge Johnstone, micha cÁrdenas, Amy Sara Carroll, Shu Lea Cheang, Jian Neo Chen, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, Stephanie Dinkins, Ricardo Dominguez, Ashley Ferro-Murray, Matthew Fuller, Jacob Gaboury, Jennifer Gabrys, Alexander R. Galloway, Jennifer Mae Hamilton, Donna J. Haraway, Eva Hayward, Stefan Helmreich, Kathy High, Leon J. Hilton, Ho Rui An, Hi'ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart, Tung-Hui Hu, Caroline A. Jones, Melody Jue, Homay King, Larissa Lai, Lawrence Lek, Esther Leslie, Alexis Lothian, Isadora Neves Marques, Radha May (Elisa Giardina-Papa, Nupur Mathur, and Bathsheba Okwenje), Shaka McGlotten, Mahan Moalemi, madison moore, Astrida Neimanis, Bahar Noorizadeh, Luciana Parisi, Thao Phan, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Rita Raley, Patricia Reed, Jennifer Rhee, Bassem Saad, Ashkan Sepahvand, Justin Talplacido Shoulder, Lucy Suchman, Ollie Zhang
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Chart of Transitions / Zach Blas, Melody Jue, and Jennifer Rhee 1
1. Representation-Simulation-Generation / Rita Raley 33
2. Bourgeois Novel, Realism-Science Fiction, Post-modernism-Visionary Fiction, Cataclysm / Alexis Lothian 41
3. White Capitalist Patriarchy-Informatics of Domination / Radha May (Elisa Giardina-Papa, Nupar Mathur, and Bathsheba Okwenje) 48
4. Organism-Biotic Component / Leon J. Hilton 52
5. Depth, Integrity-Surface, Boundary-Circulation, Residence Time / Eva Hayward and Stefan Helmreich 57
6. Heat-Noise / Ollie Zhang 65
7. White Capitalist Patriarchy-Informatics of Domination / Hiʻilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart 71
8. Biology as Clinical Practice-Biology as Inscription-Biological Transmutation-Adaptation / Kathy High 77
9. Physiology-Communications Engineering / Esther Leslie 83
10. Small Group-Subsystem / Lawrence Lek 90
11. Perfection-Optimization-Absolution / Alexander R. Galloway 99
12. Eugenics-Population Control / Ama Josephine Budge Johnstone 103
13. Decadence, Magic Mountain-Obsolescence, Future Shock-Speculation, Cosmopolis / Bahar Noorizadeh and Bassem Saad 110
14. Hygiene-Stress Management-Procrastination / Mahan Moalemi 118
15. White Capitalist Patriarchy-Informatics of Domination / Larissa Lai 124
16. Microbiology, Tuberculosis-Immunology, AIDS-Epigenetics, Body Burdens / Isadora Neves Marques 130
17. Organic Division of Labor -Ergonomics/Cybernetics of Labor-Inorganic Division of Labor / Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal 136
18. Functional Specialization-Modular Construction-Object Orientation / Jacob Gaboury 146
19. Reproduction-Replication / Luciana Parisi 152
20. White Capitalist Patriarchy-Informatics of Domination / Ashkan Sepahvand 159
21. Organic Sex Role Specialization-Optimal Genetic Strategies / Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Luiza Prado de O. Martins 168
22. Biological Determination-Evolutionary Inertia, Constraints-Future Folklore / Ashley Ferro-Murray and Justin Talplacido Shoulder 176
23. Community Ecology-Ecosystem-Automated Environments / Jennifer Gabrys 182
24. Racial Chain of Being-Neo-imperialism, United Nations Humanism-the More Things Change-the More Things Change / Shaka McGlotten 189
25. White Capitalist Patriarchy-Informatics of Domination / Jian Neo Chen 196
26. Scientific Management in Home/Factory-Global Factory/Electronic Cottage / Ho Rui An 203
27. Family/Market/Factory-Women in the Integrated Circuit-Feminist Corpus of Organismic Art / Caroline A. Jones 211
28. Family Wage-Comparable Worth / Dalida MarÍa Benfield 218
29. Public/Private-Cyborg Citizenship / Amy Sara Carroll and Ricardo Dominguez, with contributions from micha cÁrdenas on behalf of Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 226
30. Nature/Culture-Fields of Difference-Composting / Jennifer Mae Hamilton and Astrida Neimanis 232
31. Cooperation-Communications Enhancement-Algorithmic Care / Stephanie Dinkins 241
32. White Capitalist Patriarchy-Informatics of Domination / madison moore 249
33. Freud-Lacan-Bergson / Homay King 257
34. Sex-Genetic Engineering / Shu Lea Cheang and Matthew Fuller 264
35. Labor-Robotics / Lucy Suchman 270
36. Mind-Artificial Intelligence / Ana Teixeira Pinto 276
37. World War II-Star Wars-War as Big Data / Tung-Hui Hu 282
38. White Capitalist Patriarchy-Informatics of Domination / Thao Phan 288
Afterword: Pandemics of Transformation for Livable Worlds / Donna J. Haraway 295
Epilogue: Interpreting Information / Patricia Reed 297
Bibliography 305
Contributors 335
Index 349
