CFP: Cultural Politics
of the Computational Image

Call for additional papers for an anthology on
the global contestation of computational imaging

Computational images are in operation today around the globe, from facial recognition and self-driving cars to generative AI and 3D scanning. While the transnational rollout of these technologies often initially shows little concern for social and historical specificities, in each place these systems arrive they intersect with and transform the visual cultures they encounter. The vast majority of critical work on computational imaging begins and ends with the United States (and/or Silicon Valley), missing the ways computational imaging is dramatically reshaping life far beyond its borders.

The proposed volume will focus on cases where the cultural politics that shape and emerge from computational imaging practices depart from this now-familiar US and Anglophone context, and that stand to critically reorient the concerns of this rapidly growing field. We have a core set of 6 papers drawn from our April 2025 Global Mediations Lab workshop at MIT, and are looking for a set of 6 or so more to round out the collection before moving to secure a publisher (hopefully in open access).

The collection currently revolves around two central pillars: the history and contestation of computational imaging infrastructures (including labor, biometric databases, perception research, and policy), and the cultural politics of synthetic images (focusing on projects using generative AI and photogrammetry), with each section engaging a range of national and regional contexts.

We seek proposals that build on these areas and/or add something new. Especially welcome are papers digging into lesser-studied regions and social contexts. Papers should both offer a careful analysis of their relevant cultural setting and engage with the broader media-theoretical discourse surrounding computational/operational imaging practices.

Please send a pdf with a chapter summary of around 350 words, a provisional bibliography of 3-5 entries, and a short bio of around 100 words to globalmediations@mit.edu by September 13, 2025. Accepted papers will be notified by late September, with draft chapters of 5,000-6,000 words due in January 2026. We plan to have an online forum and manuscript workshop in early 2026 to collect feedback on the drafts, including the new contributors. Any inquiries may be directed to volume editor Paul Roquet.

Editor bio: Paul Roquet is associate professor of media studies and Japan studies at MIT. He is the author of Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self (Minnesota, 2016) and The Immersive Enclosure: Virtual Reality in Japan (Columbia, 2022). His current research focuses on the spread of 3DCG and its role in the re-imagination of landscape, perspective, and spatial power.