Discursive and material dimensions of the digital transformation

Based on perspectives from and on Japan, we deal with the discursive and material dimensions of the digital transformation. In the research literature on the digital transformation, robots and data are often discussed separately. We want to bring these topics together and consider algorithms, AI, and infrastructure as potentially connecting approaches and analytical concepts.
On the first day, we will explore visions, practices, and narratives in politics, research and development, and science fiction related to robots, artificial intelligence, and algorithms. The second day is dedicated to the use of data and the development of data infrastructures with regard to their socio-cultural, economic, and historical situation. Here, too, AI and algorithms function as constitutive elements. On both days, eurocentrisms and (self-)orientalizations will be identified and questioned.
On the third day, the results of the two thematic days are compiled and related. Based on the discussions of the previous days, we look for gaps, fractures, and the in-between of the material and discursive constructions of robots, data, AI, algorithms, and infrastructures from a transdisciplinary perspective to think about possibilities of employing them productively. We draw on approaches from media and cultural studies, anthropology, the history of science, and science and technology studies.