metaLAB June Work-share: Kim Albrecht & Ilan Manouach

42 Kirkland St.
Cambridge
Wed., June 3, 2026, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.



Cryptocompetence (Manouach)
We've been taught to fear the black box, to demand that every system open itself to inspection, as though understanding were the price of legitimacy and transparency the cure for everything we cannot see. But the most consequential systems of our age, from protein folding to the markets to the cells that keep us alive, already produce results no one fully comprehends. This talk is an invitation to stay inside that condition rather than escape it.

Segments (Albrecht)
One way to understand reality is to divide it, slicing broad categories into ever finer pieces. Science has pursued this method for centuries, and so has commerce, where humans are turned into market segments. The shadowy industry of data brokers has refined this technique for decades, largely out of public view. This talk investigates the hidden structures of data brokerage through visualization, observing the observers and making the obscurity visible.

Gazette Classification: Art/Design, Community, Ethics, Humanities, Information Technology, Science, Social Sciences, Special Events
Organization/Sponsor: metaLAB (at) Harvard
Speaker(s): Ilan Manouach , MetaLAB Visiting Fellow, Kim Albrecht , Professor of Information Design at Folkwang University of the Arts (Essen, Germany); Principal, metaLAB at Harvard and Berlin
Cost: Free
Ticket Web Link: docs.google.com…
Contact Info: [email protected]
Harvard Key Required: No
More info: docs.google.com…