The Power of Absence: Thinking with Archival Theory in Algorithmic Design

This paper explores the value of archival theory as a means of grappling with bias in algorithmic design. Rather than seek to mitigate biases perpetuated by datasets and automated systems, archival theory offers a reframing of bias itself. Drawing on a range of archival theory from the fields of history, literary and cultural studies, Black studies, and feminist STS, we propose absence—as power, presence, and productive—as a concept that might more securely anchor investigations into the causes of algorithmic bias, and that can prompt more capacious, creative, and joyful future work. This essay, in turn, can intervene into the technical as well as the social, historical, and political structures that serve as sources of bias.