The algorithmic co-constitution of dis/ability (Anna-Marie Rönsch)

• Tuesday, January 19^th / 2–4 pm / C40.530

• This event is in English.
• This event is in-person with a hybrid option. Contact us to receive the Teams Meeting link.

• Registration is not necessary. 

Media co-constitute dis/ability and dis/ability co-constitutes media (Mills and Sterne 2017). In a time of so-called Artificial Intelligence hype, in which media are becoming increasingly algorithmic and are marketed as “intelligent”, they continue to produce various barriers and exclusions, even when specifically designed to reduce them. This doctoral research project asks what the algorithmization of media entails for the co-constitution of dis/ability. I analyze algorithmic media as active agents that reproduce or alter social norms, epistemic assumptions, and power relations concerning bodies, performance, and what counts as “normal” in their interaction with users. As AI and algorithms are not new, groundbreaking phenomena but carry a long history of failures and successes, I take a closer look at this history to understand how earlier media technologies already participated in co-constituting dis/ability and what this means for current media. Drawing on a range of historical and current media as examples, I examine the contexts in which they were created, the interactions they en- or disable, and their technical basis, following a digital media-archaeological approach. Reading historical and current media together allows me to highlight continuities and ruptures that a synchronic analysis would miss, situating current media within this longer history of co-constitution. In doing so, I bring two research fields, media studies and disability studies, into conversation with one another, contributing to the developing field of disability media studies.

Anna Rönsch is a PhD student and research assistant at the institute of culture and aesthetics of digital media (ICAM) at Leuphana Unviersity Lüneburg. Her research project is situated at the intersection of media and disability studies and investigates the algorithmic co-constitution of dis/ability. Her research interests lie in disability media studies, critical data and algorithm studies as well as media history. She holds a research master in sociology of culture, media and arts from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a BA in literature, art and media studies from the University of Konstanz. 

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