This PhD thesis utilises diagrams as a language for research and design practice to critically investigate algorithmic prediction. As a tool for practice-based research, the language of diagrams is presented as a way to
read algorithmic prediction as a set of intricate computational geometries, and to write it through critical practice immersed in the very materials in question: data and code. From a position rooted in graphic and interaction design, the research uses diagrams to gain purchase on algorithmic prediction, making it available for examination, experimentation, and critique. The project is framed by media archaeology, used here as a methodology through which both the technical and historical "depths" of algorithmic systems are excavated.

My main research question asks:

How can diagrams be used as a language to critically investigate algorithmic prediction through design practice?

This thesis presents two secondary questions for critical examination, asking:

Through which mechanisms does thinking/writing/designing in diagrammatic terms inform research and practice focused on algorithmic prediction?

As algorithmic systems claim to produce objective knowledge, how can diagrams be used as instruments for speculative and/or conjectural knowledge production?

I contextualise my research by establishing three registers of relations between diagrams and algorithmic prediction. These are identified as: Data Diagrams to describe the algorithmic forms and processes through which data are turned into predictions; Control Diagrams to afford critical perspectives on algorithmic prediction, framing the latter as an apparatus of prescription and control; and Speculative Diagrams to open up opportunities for reclaiming the generative potential of computation. These categories form the scaffolding for the three practice-oriented chapters where I evidence a range of meaningful ways to investigate algorithmic prediction through diagrams.

This includes, the 'case board' where I unpack some of the historical genealogies of algorithmic prediction. A purpose-built graph application materialises broader reflections about how such genealogies might be conceptualised, and facilitates a visual and subjective mode of knowledge production. I then move to producing 'traces', namely probing the output of an algorithmic prediction system|in this case YouTube recommendations. Traces, and the purpose-built instruments used to visualise them, interrogate both the mechanisms of algorithmic capture and claims to make these mechanisms transparent through data visualisations. Finally, I produce algorithmic predictions and examine the diagrammatic "tricks," or 'chicanes', that this involves. I revisit a historical prototype for algorithmic prediction, the almanac publication, and use it to question the boundaries between data-science and divination. This is materialised through a new version of the almanac - an automated publication where algorithmic processes are used to produce divinatory predictions.

My original contribution to knowledge is an approach to practice-based research which draws from media archaeology and focuses on diagrams to investigate algorithmic prediction through design practice. I demonstrate to researchers and practitioners with interests in algorithmic systems, prediction, and/or speculation, that diagrams can be used as a language to engage critically with these themes.

Case Board, Traces, & Chicanes

Diagrams for an archaeology of algorithmic prediction through critical design practice.

PhD Thesis in progress (submitted for examination on 29.01.2020)
Practice-based research by David Benqué at the School of Communication, Royal College of Art, London UK. This research is supported by Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK) as part of their PhD scholarship programme.
Supervisors: Prof. Teal Triggs (RCA), Richard Banks (Microsoft Research)

Camelia

The Camelia image is copyright 2009 by Larry Wall. Permission to use
is granted under the Artistic License 2.0, or any subsequent version
of the Artistic License.

The Camelia image is a trademark of Larry Wall, and permission is
granted for non-exclusive use to label anything related to Perl 6,
provided the image is labeled as a trademark when used as a main logo
on a page. (It is not necessary to so label icons, or other casual
uses not related to business.) Such labeling may be done either by
footnote or with a TM mark.

It is recommended that such a TM mark be in a light but visible color
of gray.

Notes

Camelia is intended primarily to represent Perl 6, The Language,
not any other aspect of Perl 6 culture, corporate or otherwise.
In particular, various implementations and distributions are free to
use their own logos and/or mascots.

Certain variants are also permissible; since Camelia knows how to
change her wing colors at will, any color scheme (or lack thereof)
in the same pattern is fine. She just happens to like bright colors
most of the time because they make her happy. But she's willing to
blend in where necessary. :)

Going to the other extreme, a textual variant also exists:

»ö«

Many other variants are possible. Have fun. Good taste and positive
connotations are encouraged, but cannot of course be required.

Those of you who think the current design does not reflect good taste
are entitled to your opinion. We will certainly allow you to change
your mind later as you grow younger. :)

Online resources

• http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl6.language/2009/03/msg31263.html
• http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl6.language/2009/03/msg31300.html

Discussion Highlights

From: Larry Wall
Date: March 24, 2009 10:25
Subject: Re: Logo considerations

[...] I think there's a tendency to
go way too abstract in most of these proposals. I want something
with gut appeal on the order of Tux. In particular I want a logo
for Perl 6 that is:

Fun
Cool
Cute
Named
Lively
Punable
Personal
Concrete
Symmetric
Asymmetric
Attractive
Relational
Metamorphic
Decolorizable
Shrinkable to textual icon
Shrinkable to graphical icon

In addition, you can extend just about anything by attaching "P6"
wings to it. I also take it as a given that we want to discourage
misogyny in our community. You of the masculine persuasion should
consider it an opportunity to show off your sensitive side. :)

Hence, Camelia.

Larry

From: Larry Wall
Date: March 25, 2009 11:28
Subject: Re: Logo considerations - 3 logos needed

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 08:54:34AM -0400, __ wrote:
: I think he was offering it as an example and a suggestion. The perl6
: community might favor it out of respect for Larry but I think he went
: out of his way to make it clear that it's the kind of thing he would
: like.

Yes, I went out of my way to indicate that my mind was still open
(a little). However, if you will allow an old geezer to be a wee bit
testy, I would also like to make it clear that I'm a just a little
tired of these "rounds"; more importantly, that I've been mulling
over this particular issue for many years. I didn't just come up
with that list of requirements off the cuff. I'm old enough to have
lots of stuff on my cuff as well.

Also, it's probably mere hubris, but I already consider myself to be a
"professional designer". I know how to take into account the various
factors that a professional designer would take into account when
designing yet another highly original logo that somehow ends up looking
just like every other logo out there. You'll notice that "sterility"
is not on my list of requirements. It was a deliberate omission.

So let me summarize the requirements into a meta-requirement:

The new logo must make Larry at least as happy as Camelia does.

That is the extent to which my mind is still open... :-)

Larry

Not picking on you in particular, but I think there's a tendency to
go way too abstract in most of these proposals. I want something
with gut appeal on the order of Tux. In particular I want a logo
for Perl 6 that is:

Fun
Cool
Cute
Named
Lively
Punable
Personal
Concrete
Symmetric
Asymmetric
Attractive
Relational
Metamorphic
Decolorizable
Shrinkable to textual icon
Shrinkable to graphical icon

In addition, you can extend just about anything by attaching "P6"
wings to it. I also take it as a given that we want to discourage
misogyny in our community. You of the masculine persuasion should
consider it an opportunity to show off your sensitive side. :)

Hence, Camelia.

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