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 MarIa Benfield, Zach Blas, Ama Josephine Budge Johnstone, micha cArdenas, 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
Zach Blas is Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto. Melody Jue is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Jennifer Rhee is Associate Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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 / Hi?ilei 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 MarIa Benfield 218 29. Public/Private-Cyborg Citizenship / Amy Sara Carroll and Ricardo Dominguez, with contributions from micha cArdenas 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
"This volume brings together a collection of diverse and original texts from a stunning array of authors who reveal the importance of understanding technodomination from the perspective of feminist and queer engagements with domination. They each start from and engage with one line of Donna J. Haraway's 'Informatics of Domination' chart, updating its content and form while relating it to contemporary developments. Specialists in feminist studies, science and technology studies, and new media studies will all welcome this book and its intellectual adventurousness." - Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, author of (Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition) "Linking Donna J. Haraway's 'Informatics of Domination' chart to an array of contemporary bodily, ecological, sociotechnical, and expressive contexts, this collection introduces fresh perspectives and unfurls a variety of feminist, queer, postcolonial, biopolitical, and environmental agendas. Its assemblage of eclectic works deconstructs and questions the scientific authority of the diagram/chart as a form and opens up critical space, serving as an important model of experimental multidisciplinary scholarly intervention." - Lisa Parks, Distinguished Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
