The Poetics of DNA Matching: Formal Structures and Cultural Affordances of Forensic Code
15. Apr.
15.04.2025, 14:00-16:00, C40.530, Colloquium with Simon Roloff (Leuphana University Lüneburg)
This talk explores the forensic use of code through the analysis of a real-life criminal case in Brooklyn, in which the "Forensic Statistical Tool" (FST) played a decisive role. Drawing on the publicly released source code and accompanying documentation ofthe FST, I examine how formal structures within the code interact with epistemic, legal, and cultural rule systems. Central to this analysis is a poeticsof code approach, which considers code not merely as a bearer of ideological meaning but as a formal operation that structures visibility and legibility—through loops, data structures, and rhythmic repetitions.
Building on recent developments in Critical Code Studies and engaging with neo-formalist theories (notably Caroline Levine), the talk argues for a media-theoretical method that treats source code as form: as a specific configuration of rules that overlap, conflict, or align with social and institutional forms. In doing so, the talk proposes a form-based approach to post-critique in media studies—one to foreground the material and formal logics of technological systems as cultural artifacts in their own right.
Simon Roloff is a media scholar and currently acting professor of media aesthetics at Leuphana University Lüneburg. He studied cultural studies, philosophy, German literature, and creative writing at Humboldt University Berlin and the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig. He received his PhD in media studies from the Bauhaus University Weimar with a dissertation on Robert Walser. Before his current position, he was Junior Professor at the Institute for Literary Writing in Hildesheim. His research focuses on the aesthetics and epistemologies of digital media, critical AI studies, and the intersection of literature, code, and algorithmic systems. He is a founding member ofthe research network The Knowledge of Digital Literature. His latest book is Digitale Literatur: Zur Einführung (2023).