Stephen Cornford
Stephen Cornford is a media artist and researcher who investigates relationships between media systems and planetary systems to challenge the viability of addressing ecological collapse through extractive and economic logics. He is Senior Lecturer at Winchester School of Art and co-founder of the Critical Infrastructures and Image Politics research group. His international exhibitions include: ZKM (Karlsruhe), ICC (Tokyo), HeK (Basel), Borealis Festival (Bergen), and Mois Multi (Quebec).
Session
This talk explores how BigTech are using artificial intelligence to prospect for critical minerals in Africa. KoBold Metals, Silicon Valley start-up is harvesting historic geological survey data, and licensing its proprietary AI engine to mining companies, to create “a Google Maps of mineral deposits”. The circular economy will not be forged from recycled metals, but recycled colonialism.