Shady Subjects

Everyday Contestation in Automated Systems

Workshop | April 24–26, 2025 | Ithaca, NY | Cornell University

THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2025

4:30am–6:30pm | Machines in Flames: Movie Screening and Discussion

Movie poster with the words Machines in Flames written over an atmospherically blurred photo of a fire in the dark

Screening of the 2023 documentary Machines in Flames (2023), followed by a discussion with co-director Andrew Culp and sociologist Janet Vertesi, moderated by Marc Aidinoff. Open to the public, free of charge, no ticket required. [UPDATE: Listen to the discusion here.]

Cornell Cinema, Willard Straight Hall, 136 Ho Plz, Ithaca, NY 14853

FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2025

8:30am–6:00pm | Workshop Sessions

Ain’t Misbehavin’: Staying with the Trouble in Automated Radiation Surgery Practice, Emma Dahlin, Stockholm University & Steve Woolgar, Linköping University

Jiggling Against the Machine: Moral Orders of Attention Simulation, Nick Seaver, Tufts University

Challenging & Sustaining Automation through Disability Expertise in Urban India: The Unique Disability ID Card, Kim Fernandes, University of Toronto

The Material Politics of Merit, Chuncheng Liu, Microsoft Research

Machine-readable Impunity: Police and the Deception of Mobility-Regulating Computers in New York City, Noah McClain, UC Berkeley

Pivots, Sareeta Amrute, New School

Of MYCIN Men: Mining the History of Early Medical Expert Systems, Jeffrey Yost, Charles Babbage Institute

Blurring the Boundary between Human and Machine: Cheating with AI in the Go Community, Jiuheng He, Cornell University

423 Morrill Hall, Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University

SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2025

8:30am–1:00pm | Workshop Sessions

"Harridans of Highways:"" Contesting an Automated Car Safety System, Thomas Zeller, University of Maryland

Contested Systems: Antidiscrimination Law and Labor Organizing in IBM’s Data Processing Division, Mikey McGovern, Yale Law School

Lying to the Machine, Mathias Klang, Fordham University

The Right Amount of Sex: Digital Work in the Grey Zone of Platform Governance, Elif Birced, Boston University

423 Morrill Hall, Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The workshop is made possible through support from a National Science Foundation CAREER award (1848286), the Department of Science & Technology Studies, and the Digital Due Process Clinic at Cornell University.