Date: March 5–6
Location: University of Toronto Mississauga and St. George
The Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology is organizing a symposium on the technopolitics of refusal, with Nicole Charles (U of Toronto), Leopoldina Fortunati (U of Udine), Jilly Boyce Kay (Loughborough U), Gavin Mueller (U of Amsterdam), Sarah Sharma (U of Toronto), Rinaldo Walcott (U at Buffalo), plus a set of theory pills by U of Toronto PhD students, and a pre-conference film screening of Machines in Flames with director Andrew Culp (California Institute of the Arts). The symposium is organized by Julie Chen, Alessandro Delfanti, and Sarah Sharma.
Quit. Strike. Break. Nap. Disconnect. Withdraw. Drink. Detox. Trip. Abolish. Play. Luxuriate. Escape. We gather together for one day to acknowledge a desire to remove oneself from the grip of 24/7 techno-capitalism as it intersects with patriarchy and white supremacy. But we are stymied by the recognition that tactics of refusal are both scarce and plenty, sometimes competing and often contradictory. And we insist that without understanding techno-politics there is no refusal. Logging out en masse during a strike against a gig economy app is the contemporary equivalent of dropping the tools on a shop floor. The Luddites organized to smash the looms that were threatening their livelihood. Black fugitivity seeks liberation and autonomy both in and against the digital world. Abolitionists seek not a new technology or a strategy but a new structure. Incels operate underground but log on to organize against feminism and the gains of others fighting for civil liberties. Technology is not a tool for either disappearance or empowerment; it is not given, but rather a strategic environment in which to maneuver. Acknowledging that refusal has a technopolitics, we ask: what can be logged out from, when, and how?
In order to expand our understanding of refusal, PhD students will deliver 5-minute “theory pill” talks that target a number of concepts that revolve around the symposium theme: Idleness (Seungwoo Baek), Touch Grass (Sarah Gram), Obfuscation (Mathew Iantorno), Tang Ping (Yuxing Yolanda Zhang), Disconnection (Nelanthi Hewa), Buddha-style (Hiu-Fung Chung), Shelter (Kaushar Mahetaji), Sleep (André Campos Rocha), Desire (Madison Mackley), Going Stealth (Upasana Bhattacharjee), Gambiarra (Guilherme Guilherme), Anti-tech (Réka Patrícia Gál), Meong Ttaerigi (Grayson Lee), Infertility (Jul Parke).
Program and Registration
Pre-Conference Film Screening
Date: Tuesday, March 5
Time: 5:00pm–6:30pm
Location: Centre for Culture and Technology, 39A Queen's Park Cres E, Toronto, ON
Screening of Machines in Flames, a film by Andrew Culp and Thomas Dekeyser. With director Andrew Culp and moderated by Upasana Bhattacharjee and Seungwoo Baek (University of Toronto).
Log Out! Symposium
Date: Wednesday, March 6
Time: 10:00am–5:00pm
Location: Collaborative Digital Research Space (MN3230), University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Toronto, ON
Log Out! The Technopolitics of Refusal symposium. Lunch will be served. A shuttle bus from downtown Toronto will be available.
Graduate students will have priority registration for the event.
Symposium Schedule
| 9:30am–10:00am | Coffee and goodies |
| 10:00am–10:20am | Introduction |
| 10:20am–12:00pm |
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| 12:00pm–1:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:00pm–2:40pm |
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| 2:20pm–3:10pm | Coffee break |
| 3:10pm–4:40pm |
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| 4:40pm–5:00pm | Collective conversation and wrap-up |