The Institute for Advanced Study at CEU

cordially invites you to the workshop

Does Interpretation have a future? Hermeneutics in Times of Big Data

Date: May 14, 2019 - 11:00 am to 16:00 pm, Nádor u. 15, Quantum room (101)

In this workshop, we seek to provide possible answers to the question: what does the replacement of writing by code mean for the future of reading and interpretation? With increasing reliance on algorithms and big data, does interpretation even have a future? What constitutes reading today, and what could hermeneutics look like in a digital age? Hermeneutics traditionally refers to the method and study of textual interpretation. Modern hermeneutics has its origin in textual exegesis, the interpretation of the Old Testament. It revolves around building bridges—between the present and the past, the familiar and the strange. In a time of post-truth, filter bubbles, and alternative facts, such perspectives are worth remembering and reiterating. In our information age, we can predict to an increasingly precise degree what kinds of messages will resonate with us, and we can simply filter out the rest. In the Humanities and Social Sciences, the shift to datafication transforms our research fields in far-reaching ways, including how we think, how we formulate our research questions, and what answer we find. Was interpretation, then, a historically necessary, but equally contingent mode? In what terms do we need to think about it as we move into a culture of big data, distributed AI, convergence, and globalization? Where does our influence end that that of the black box begin; and where does the analysis of the machine end, and our responsibility begin? After all, data still is, and needs to be, interpreted. The workshop brings together scholars from diverse disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences to engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue on these matters.

Organizer: Inge Van de Ven, IAS Junior Fellow

Speakers: Hannah Ackermans (University of Bergen), József Fiser (Dept. of Cognitive Science, CEU), Ties van Gemert (Tilburg University), Jessie Labov (School of Public Policy, CEU), Sander Verhaegh (Tilburg University), Csaba Pléh (Dept. of Cognitive Science, CEU), Inge Van de Ven (IAS CEU)

Please register here, where you can also find the full workshop program.

ÉVA GÖNCZI

Secretary

OFFICE ADDRESS: Október 6. u. 7., Third Floor, Room 321 | 1051 Budapest, Hungary

MAILING ADDRESS: IAS CEU, Nádor u. 9. | 1051 Budapest, Hungary

PHONE: +36 1 327 3000/2596 | gonczi@ceu.edu