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On September 18, 2026, Business and Design Lab will open the 2026-2027 seminar series with a conversation on robots, algorithms and possibilities of reorientation and reframing with Daniela Rosner and Cristina Zaga. In two presentations and following discussions, the seminar asks how we might understand AI, automation and robotics differently when we attend to the materials, labor, infrastructures, and relations on which they depend.
Seminar
Date
18 Sep 2026
Time
12:00 – 13:30
Location
HDK-Valand, Kristinelundsgatan 6-8, rum 206B
Threading the Algorithm, Reorienting Automation
DANIELA ROSNER
This talk explores a material history of algorithms told through thread. Beginning in late 18th and early 19th century industrial textile manufacturing, in the movement of person to apparatus, I show how programs of automation effectively obscured, displaced, and devalued formations of work on which machines depended. Turning to contemporary decolonial experiments, I examine techniques for resisting interlocking legacies of mechanization, gesturing at the expansive political possibilities that come from twisted fiber. I suggest that an earlier and emphatically material formation of algorithms in cloth helps reveal patterns of extraction and reorientation always at hand.
What is critical about critical AI&Robotics: Reframing from Responsibility to Solidarity Frameworks
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are fundamentally reshaping society and the environment, yet their governance remains predominantly undemocratic, with power and ownership concentrated among a small group of influential actors. Instead of serving diverse constituencies, AI frequently advances competing interests, prioritizing industry profits and government innovation at the expense of planetary health. As a result, “AI-driven modernization” increasingly threatens the security of both people and nature. In my work, I examine the AI “extraction stack”, a system spanning from raw materials to digital infrastructure, that relentlessly consumes finite resources, disrupts communities, and marginalizes those most profoundly affected, including non-human stakeholders. I pose a critical question: can we reimagine the AI technological ecosystem and its power relations through a (more-than-human) solidarity lens? If so, how? What can design achieve, and what are its limitations? Where do current critical and futuring approaches fall short? In this talk, I will present research that investigates the complex political relationships among AI, society, and the planet, highlighting both the limitations and opportunities of designerly approaches. Rather than focusing solely on algorithms, user interfaces, or post-hoc harm reduction, as is common in responsibility-oriented frameworks, my research redirects critical design toward a solidarity framework. This approach challenges how the industry-driven, multi-layered AI ecosystem redefines the social contract and establishes new boundaries of reality and agency by shifting ontological and agential control to workers, patients, and public governance.
The seminar is open to all interesting. Any question, please email britta.teleman@gu.se and/or elena.raviola@gu.se.
Daniela Rosnerisa Professor in the Department of Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXArts) and the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington. She holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS). She also serves as an associate member of the Einstein Center for Digital Futures in Berlin, Germany. Her work lies at the intersection of science and technology studies and design practice and performance, with a focus on the material histories and hidden labors of computing.
Dr. ir. Cristina Zaga is an assistant professor of Human-Centred Design group and DesignLab at the University of Twente. Cristina holds a Ph.D. (cum laude) in Computer Science and a double MSc (cum laude) in Cognitive Science and Human-Media interaction. With colleagues at DesignLab of the University of Twente, she co-develops Responsible Futuring, a transdisciplinary approach to tackle societal challenges with academic and non-academic communities.
