Take Back the Algorithms! A Media Theory of Commonistic Affordance

This essay critiques the ‘black-boxing’ of many computational processes, which are argued to result in a kind of ‘unaffordability’ of algorithms. By engaging with current theoretical debates on ‘commoning’ – signifying a non-profit-oriented, solidarity-based approach to sharing, maintaining, and disseminating knowledge and experience – the essay offers a formulation of commonistic affordance in algorithmic contexts. Through the discussion of widely used computational tools such as the Viola-Jones object detection framework, radical steps towards a ‘making affordable’ of algorithms are outlined, and the widespread corporate propertisation of computation processes is contrasted with a speculative vision of algorithmic commoning.