EPISODE · Jun 7, 2026 · 55 MIN
725. On Ideal Subjects. How To Be Abstract (URSS/United Kingdom). A talk with Olga Goriunova
from Diseño y Diáspora · host Mariana Salgado
Olga Goriunova is a cultural theorist who works at the intersection of technology, media, philosophy, and aesthetics. Born in the Soviet Union, she is now based in the UK. Her research is transdisciplinary and engages questions of subjectivation, art and computing across different scales and modes of operation.In this interview, we talk about her latest book, Ideal Subjects: Abstract People of AI. In it, she explores how data and artificial intelligence abstract people into new genres of “subjects,” mapping the horizon of individual and societal possibility.The idea of “ideal subjects” can be useful for designers and user researchers, especially when trying to understand—and question—the way our online data is produced, relates back to us and models our future.She is helping us to question: - What kind of "subject" is created through data? - How does data based representation attempt to match a human being? - How come that these data-based abstractions are able to engage our desire and thus direct our becoming in relation to their modelled prescriptions? This episode is part of several lists: Investigación en diseño, Reino Unido y diseño, Rusia y diseño, D&D in English, Filosofía y diseño, Arte y diseño social, and AI en UX. While many of the list titles are in Spanish, the content itself is trilingual. Some episodes are in English, others in Spanish or Portuguese. The list D&D in English brings together all the English-language episodes, and it now includes nearly 50 interviews.
What this episode covers
Olga Goriunova is a cultural theorist who works at the intersection of technology, media, philosophy, and aesthetics. Born in the Soviet Union, she is now based in the UK. Her research is transdisciplinary and engages questions of subjectivation, art and computing across different scales and modes of operation.In this interview, we talk about her latest book, Ideal Subjects: Abstract People of AI. In it, she explores how data and artificial intelligence abstract people into new genres of “subjects,” mapping the horizon of individual and societal possibility.The idea of “ideal subjects” can be useful for designers and user researchers, especially when trying to understand—and question—the way our online data is produced, relates back to us and models our future.She is helping us to question: - What kind of "subject" is created through data? - How does data based representation attempt to match a human being? - How come that these data-based abstractions are able to engage our desire and thus direct our becoming in relation to their modelled prescriptions? This episode is part of several lists: Investigación en diseño, Reino Unido y diseño, Rusia y diseño, D&D in English, Filosofía y diseño, Arte y diseño social, and AI en UX. While many of the list titles are in Spanish, the content itself is trilingual. Some episodes are in English, others in Spanish or Portuguese. The list D&D in English brings together all the English-language episodes, and it now includes nearly 50 interviews.
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725. On Ideal Subjects. How To Be Abstract (URSS/United Kingdom). A talk with Olga Goriunova
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