Re-imagining the Algorithmic Imaginary Through Psychoanalysis, Cinema and Sludge

The algorithmic imaginary, coined by Taina Bucher in 2017, is an influential concept within the field of critical algorithm studies. It frames ‘the algorithm’ primarily as a socially constructed concept which individuals develop using subjective experiences with algorithmic systems, rather than as a distinct, identifiable computational object. This approach has informed a range of valuable, sociologically inclined research into algorithms. But, while the algorithmic imaginary can help users negotiate power relations channelled through computational systems, it is ultimately an illusory and vague concept. This illusory nature has not been sufficiently interrogated within critical algorithm studies, risking uncritical acceptance of the highly subjective nature of narratives around algorithms.

This dissertation expands Bucher’s idea through the work of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, arguing that his concept of the Imaginary is akin to the algorithmic imaginary. This opens up further algorithmic analogies to Lacan’s concepts of the Symbolic and Real, which are linked inextricably to the Imaginary in his thought. Through this framework, the way in which cultural objects produce algorithmic imaginaries is articulated in more precisely. From this, a methodology is developed which, through applying a range of ideas from film and media theory, those cultural objects can be analysed for their capacity to either reinforce or destabilise the coherence of algorithmic imaginaries, with the latter representing a more critical position which is argued to be productive. This methodology is applied to two examples of screen media which, albeit in very different ways, produce algorithmic imaginaries: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, and the genre of online video content colloquially termed ‘sludge’. The analysis concludes that the algorithm is a concept which arises reflexively to explain, by assigning to it a coherent cause, an alienating or traumatic experience with digital technology, and by extension the system of late capitalism from which that technology emerges.