[artinfo] cfp: securing with algorithms: knowledge, decision, sovereignty

[Rita Raley]

Call for submissions for a special issue of Security Dialogue on

"Securing with algorithms: Knowledge, decision, sovereignty".

In a world where the data traces or life patterns 
of human beings are thought to yield new forms of 
knowledge and novel ways of knowing future 
threats, the algorithm appears to afford a 
renewed capacity to secure. As Edward Snowdens 
2013 disclosure of the analysis of bulk data by 
the NSA and GCHQ revealed, the sifting, sorting 
and triage of vast streams of digital data has 
become possible because of algorithmic techniques 
such as knowledge discovery and the querying of 
distributed databases. As online data streams 
become read by text analytics that promise to 
discover incipient sentiment and human affects, 
algorithms exhibit a capacity for action beyond 
the threshold of human perceptibility. With 
advances in machine learning, neural computation 
and clustering â?ì identifying clusters or 
patterns that were not previously perceptible to 
human vision â?ì the actions of algorithms on 
humans, objects, and other algorithms pose new 
questions for how we think about the problem of 
security.

The special issue will explore the implications 
and effects of algorithm, broadly conceived, for 
the imagination and practice of security. What 
does it mean to secure with algorithms? Do 
algorithmic techniques of war, security and 
intelligence gathering extend what is thought to 
be calculable? Do algorithms deployed in 
autonomous systems compute beyond the threshold 
of human perceptibility and consciousness? Do 
digital forms of cognition radically transform 
human agency â?ì at the border, on the 
battlefield, at the screenic interface of the 
smart city? What are the implications of novel 
forms of machinic decisions and agency, as 
algorithms recursively act upon other algorithms 
and humans? What kind of ethics, justice or 
resistance can be opened up, beyond the _human_ 
in human rights, and dwelling within 
human-algorithm relations?

We invite contributions from across the 
disciplines, and with particular interest in the 
insights on algorithm as a way of thinking about, 
ordering and visualizing security, from across 
the arts, computer science, social science and 
philosophy.

Deadline Abstracts submission (500 words) 11 May 2015.
Please submit to: <mailto:sd at prio.no>sd at prio.no
In the event a full submission is invited, 15 
September 2015 will be the deadline for 
submitting a complete draft.
Please use our online submission platform 
Sagetrack and consult the Notes for Authors for 
guidelines on style and the submission process.
All queries about the special issue should be 
directed to the managing editor at 
<mailto:sd at prio.no>sd at prio.no.

The call is online at 
<http://raley.english.ucsb.edu/wp-content/CFP-Securing-with-Algorithms.pdf><http://raley.english.ucsb.edu/wp-content/CFP-Securing-with-Algorithms.pdf>.