Translations of control: Trial by algorithm

This presentation uses Kafka’s The Trial to explore the perceived powerlessness and responsibility of individuals trapped within the opaque inscrutability of AI systems of governance and bureaucracy. The project reimagines Kafka’s critique within the context of contemporary and future AI-driven decision-making, algorithmic governance and ‘public safety’ narratives. Through a collection of diptych-style framed prints, the installation juxtaposes four themes and text from The Trial in multiple languages. It highlights the parallels between Kafka’s imagined court, its processes and assumed guilt, with today’s AI-augmented public safety apparatus; where systems can operate in ways that remain impenetrable to those subjected to their authority and consequences. The four themes visually presented are: the identification of risk; the weight of accusation; surveillance and omnipresent authority, and death and liberty. The installation was created from staged photography, digital prints from which sketches were made and embellished with mixed media. The aim is to provoke the observer to consider important questions about human relations with AI-driven technology and the potential for alternatives, with questions such as:
• How does AI reinforce bureaucratic absurdity?
• How do algorithmic systems create and sustain power asymmetries?
• Can AI, like Kafka’s ‘court,’ generate narratives of guilt without tangible evidence?
• How might alternative AI imaginaries redefine the ‘public safety’ narrative?
• What responsibility do humans have for creating, using, and resisting AI systems?
• To what extent do individuals bear personal responsibility for surveillance culture and its impacts on people and communities?
To accompany the narrative depicted by the framed prints and themes, a poem titled ‘Trial by Algorithm’ has been written (see Appendix A).

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This paper presentation was supported by an art installation created by the author.