The Institute for Perverse Outcomes (IPO) explores and articulates the latent harms and possibilities of current and future technology platforms, especially in relation to economic systems that mold technologies. IPO was conceptualized with Finn Brunton (NYU, Media Culture and Communication).
The first project of IPO has been Slightly Dystopian Demos.
Slightly Dystopian Demos respond to the challenges of demonstrating latent harms of actually existing software infrastructures — specifically, San Diego’s GE Current smart streetlight system. It can be hard for people to imagine how anonymized data about seemingly harmless categories — here, pedestrians, motorists, and bicyclists — can serve as building blocks for public harm. In this project, our team worked in collaboration with members of TRUST Coalition to brainstorm questionable or harmful uses of current public data APIs and build software apps that demonstrate harmful applications. This project is an exercise in speculative design reasoning in service of public deliberation on technologies rather than the innovating of value.
Our work made it into Voice of San Diego’s report “Smart Streetlights Aren’t Delivering the Data Boosters Promised.”
IPO sometimes launches reports under less cheeky monikers. Our report “Broken Promises of Civic Innovation: Technological, Organizational, Fiscal, and Equity Challenges of GE Current CityIQ” (May 1, 2020) details how San Diego’s smart city deployment is failing its citizens.