The Review/ Video/
William Uricchio on the Stories That Algorithms Tell
American media scholar and MIT Professor, William Uricchio discusses how programs – not people – author an increasing number of stories in our newspapers and documentaries.
Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, William Uricchio discusses the role that algorithms play in shaping the news stories we read and the online world with which we interact. This lecture explores a shift in storytelling from a single, fixed point of view to a more collaborative and programmatic model made possible by algorithms. The traditional understanding of subject-object patterns and viewing relations are challenged by an unprecedented use of cartographic systems, location-aware technologies, and an algorithmic construction of images.
Uricchio is the Principle Investigator of the MIT Open Documentary Lab and the MIT Game Lab. His research interests include revisiting the histories of old media; algorithmic enablements of participatory cultural forms; the history and future of television; and cultural identities and the question of "Americanization" in the 20th and 21st centuries.
In partnership with the Graduate Program in Cinema and Media Studies at York University, The Norman Jewison Lecture Series, and Sensorum, Centre for Digital Arts and Technology Research at York University, this Higher Learning event was held on May 14, 2014 at TIFF Bell Lightbox.