media theory – Looks Like New

Can AI be rebuilt to serve communities?

MEDLab — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

In this month’s episode, in conversation with MEDLab fellow Stephanie Abdalla, Dr. Gebru discusses AI ethics research, the history of the AGI movement, and movements of resistance that can lead us to alternative AI futures.

Dr. Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR for short), an independent organization of academics, activists, and engineers who believe in technology that benefits everyone. Dr. Gebru is also the co-founder of Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility, and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian and Jamaican high school students. She has received a number of accolades, including being named one of Nature’s Ten people who helped shape science and one of TIME 100’s most influential people.

What does digital privacy mean for young people?

MEDLab — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 16:36:10 +0000

Whether or not we have children of our own, many of us have wondered how we approach their privacy in the digital world. What’s the best way we can approach this increasingly important question? In this episode, MEDLab research fellow Antoinette Kendrick speaks with danah boyd, a leading researcher, scholar, and thought leader in the fields of technology, social media, and youth culture. She is a Partner Researcher at Microsoft Research, founder of the non-profit organization Data & Society, and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University. Her book It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens is a foundational text on youth digital culture ,examining the ways teens use social platforms and the societal expectations that follow.

Can technology help us obtain a brighter future?

MEDLab — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 18:00:00 +0000

This month we interviewed Dr. Shamika Klassen, a User Interface Scientist and recent graduate of C.U. Boulder’s Department of Information Science. Dr. Klassen is interested in creating technologies that put humans first, particularly those who are traditionally marginalized.

On this episode, Dr. Klassen discusses with us her how she arrived at her dissertation research topic and process of conducting the research. Tune in to listen as we discuss Afro Futurism, Ethical Speculative Projects, and Black Mirror.

What does fan culture look like in the digital age?

MEDLab — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 18:04:00 +0000

On this episode we have the privilege of hosting a distinguished returning guest, who’s groundbreaking research has reshaped the landscape of media studies; the Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts, Education, and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California, Dr. Henry Jenkins.

What does it mean to be a fan in the digital age? What do fan practices look like?

In this episode Dr. Jenkins takes us through fan activism to purchasing practices in China as he discusses research on emerging fan cultures. In this episode we will learn all about the new landscape of global fandom in an increasingly digitally mediated world.

What Is a Black Media Philosophy?

MEDLab — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 01:00:17 +0000

A lot of us are thinking about the legacies of racism these days, and about a media ecosystem that seems to hinder any hope of progress. But too rarely do we think about race and media together. Who gets to be the heroes of the digital age? Whose bodies become a kind of media?

Our guest this month, Armond Towns, has been developing a “Black media philosophy” that confronts media cultures saturated in whiteness. He is a professor of Rhetoric and Communication Studies at the University of Richmond. With host Bailey Troutman.

How do you invent the future?

MEDLab — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 19:20:13 +0000

Activist Adrienne Maree brown writes that the work of social change requires “science fictional behavior”— which is surely all the more true in the context of a global pandemic. To help us think through this crisis, we hear from Cadwell Turnbull, whose critically acclaimed first book, The Lesson, portrays an alien sort-of-invasion centered on his native US Virgin Islands. In addition to his storytelling, Turnbull is an activist working through social change through solidarity economics. He explores what it means to be a speculative fiction writer in especially science fictional times

What happened to hacktivism?

MEDLab — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 19:24:58 +0000

The cultures of computer hacking have made their way from marginal subcultures to becoming driving forces in the world as we know it. Facebook’s headquarters is on a street called Hacker Way. A hack of the Democratic National Committee’s emails helped elect the current US president. Free Software produced by volunteer hackers around the world powers the internet. Hackers have been noble whistleblowers, supporters of authoritarian states, and White supremacists. Our guide to it all is anthropologist Gabriella Coleman, who has immersed herself in these cultures for many years now, the author of several books and co-founder of a new website on hacker ephemera, Hack_Curio.

What makes computers happy?

MEDLab — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 19:20:56 +0000

More and more people feel uncomfortable with the role of big tech companies in their everyday lives, but they don’t feel they have any other option. System76 is trying to change that. It’s a Denver-based computer company that produces its own computers, and its own open-source operating system, here in Colorado. Emma Marshall is System76’s Happiness Manager, and she talks about what it means to be part of a company that helps create more empowered computer users.

Is Information a Public Good?

MEDLab — Thu, 23 May 2019 18:08:45 +0000

Longmont, Colorado is considering a new way of funding news—through a proposed library-district tax. This idea builds on a model, the Community Information District, first proposed by Simon Galperin. This month on Looks Like New, Galperin describes his vision for “info districts” as not just a means of funding news but as a pathway toward a more participatory, democratic culture.

What is a human?

MEDLab — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 00:00:30 +0000

This month’s guest is Douglas Rushkoff, one of our most prominent and provocative thinkers on technology and culture. In his latest book, a manifesto called Team Human, Rushkoff calls for mobilizing against the forces seeking to make people subservient to algorithms and other machines we have created.

What is a Lab?

MEDLab — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 17:18:40 +0000

What Is a Lab? With Lori Emerson of the Media Archaeology Lab

CU Boulder’s Media Archaeology Lab is a place where artists, scholars, students, and tinkerers can come to use apparently obsolete computers and other technology.

Founding director Lori Emerson, professor of English and Intermedia Art, Writing, and Performance, discusses her lab and the history of labs in general.