Atlas of AI author Kate Crawford maintains an ongoing data visualization piece with artist Vladan Joler called Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500​. Crawford and Joler map the evolutions of ideas, devices, infrastructures, and systems of power over the centuries and across the globe, contextualizing the current technological moment in which we find ourselves. This prismatic document exists as an ever-evolving digital timeline at www.calculatingempires.net.

Calculating Empires becomes even more dynamic when Crawford and Joler stage it as a physical installation. Visitors can peruse the installation closeup in book form. They are also invited to contribute writings and drawings based on their own personal histories with technology. Participants are encouraged to include technological objects and events that are unique to their local area. These contributions form a feedback loop which informs how Crawford and Joler create new manifestations of the project.

Learning about Calculating Empires has enriched my understanding of Crawford’s scholarship and inspired my own research and artistic practices. Crawford’s multidimensional work researching, writing, and creating art around technology has had a profound influence on my work here at the M2Lab and beyond. I look forward to generating lively discussion about the materiality of AI, our relationship to technology, our relationship to our own humanity, and our connection to the Earth. I’m excited to interrogate these subjects via a lens of embodied media reading, create multimedia work around it, and form my own feedback loops with participants.