Working into the workings of a working thing. I repeat:
The anatomy of a refusal.
The mind,
singing to itself.
The words, whispered through vibrating flesh.
The Anatomy of a Refusal.
Anatomy…of…a…refusal…
A phrase with subtle richness, what meanings could it hold?
Anatomy…the body of a refusal. The refusal of a body. A refusal, something with anatomy. Something with a body.
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“The Anatomy of a Refusal” is the title of the second chapter of How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.
Thinking about AI, this phrase unearthed itself to me, like a whisper, or a prayer, and I began to repeat it to myself without realizing where it had come from.
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This is a similar phenomenon to AI generation: a sourceless image appears, made meaningful by virtue of its presence in my head, on my shoulders.
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Anatomy resonates (literally within the body, as it is said) with
the histories of refusal:
striking, hunger, real bodies and beings standing in the way of things. If change is not flowing through the reverberations of the system, a glitch will dam this water, and make language into change.
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Anatomy diagrams a system: this is how the scientists write poetry: they are guided by nature: how this connects with that without intention: there is no intention in the body: there is function, dysfunction: there is beauty: there are tails, vestigials: purpose becomes obscured:
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A Refusal: the stoplight of a moment.
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Art might be the ultimate refusal.
A Refusal: quietly, abstaining. Art might be the ultimate refusal. An examined life refused the unexamined path. Can living be thinking?
Herbert Marcuse calls art "The Great Refusal", meaning that "art has the potential to help us 'see' anew that which is familiar, the everyday, the banal." SRC
As I code this, the LAUSD is striking. According to the NYTimes, these are the grievances:
- The striking workers are upset over low pay and a contract that ran out in 2020.
- Some blindsided parents have to scramble for child care.
- Worker organizing and strikes have surged over the last 18 months.
- Here’s a look at some recent education strikes.
- A family enjoys working together at a school, but struggles to pay bills.
- Here’s how the district prepared to feed and care for schoolchildren.
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What if that process occurs in milliseconds?
Time folds into itself.
What if that process occurs in milliseconds?
Time folds into itself.
Cassie Thornton's Social Practice MFA thesis at CCA consisted of a series of "debt visualizations:"
“As I get closer to [the debt], the wind picks up. There are dead dry leaves in the air. It seems so far away, it looks like a huge pointy skyscraper, pointy, sharp at the top. It’s gray, no clouds. Farm fields surround it, the ground here is dewy, bare, with short dead grass. I’m completely alone” (Thornton).[1] So begins the text of one of the visual artist Cassie Thornton’s “debt visualizations,” in which Thornton uses “debt as a medium” so that it would be “materialized,” “collectivized,” and would “change forms.”
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Many people are rejecting the algorithmic harms of AI systems: trained on biased data, bias becomes embedded in that which they produce.
"we identify modes of refusal that recognize the limits of Big Tech’s resistance; built on practices of feminist organizing, decoloniality, and New-Luddism, they encourage a rethinking of the place and value of technologies in mediating human social and personal life; and not just how they can deterministically ‘improve’ social relations."
Young Chinese workers opt out of ambition, working endlessly, and demands to innovate and compete as part ofthe Lying Flat Movement.
"It was possible, even desirable, he argued, to find independence in resignation: “I can be like Diogenes, who sleeps in his own barrel taking in the sun.” Discussions about “lying flat” picked up pace in May, as young Chinese, over-worked and over-stressed, weighed the merits of relinquishing ambition, spurning effort, and refusing to bear hardship.
Many critics have theorized the potentials of refusing technology:
"What is the potential of tech refusal? As an action, refusal can initiate and engender new possibilities for social change from ‘inside’ tech organisations and in the broader culture ‘outside’ them, for instance, by those who choose to opt-out of data-driven technologies in their everyday lives."
Low Tech Magazine rejects many aspects of a high-tech-dependent lifestyle and internet.
"In 2008, employees at an office for the accounting firm Deloitte were troubled by the behavior of a new recruit. In the midst of a bustling work environment, she didn’t seem to be doing anything except sitting at an empty desk and staring into space. Whenever someone would ask what she was doing, she would reply that she was “doing thought work” or “working on [her] thesis.” Then there was the day that she spent riding the elevators up and down repeatedly. When a coworker saw this and asked if she was “thinking again,” she replied: “It helps to see things from a different perspective.” The employees became uneasy. Urgent inter-office emails were sent." - Jenny O'Dell
AI Refuses Humans
Human researchers imagine AI rebellions:
"We launch a conversation on constructive AI rebellion and describe a framework meant to support discussion, implementation, and deployment of AI Rebel Agents as protagonists of positive narratives."
