Hiba Ali

I examine the expansive role of Amazon in the industries of AI, web store and cloud service. The myth that technology is supposed to make the world a better place is contradicted by the rise of behemoth corporations, such as Amazon. Black and brown people are made hyper-visible subjects via Amazon’s AI-webcam doorbell Ring, facial recognition software and paranoid “neighborhood watch” app. Due to gross negligence, and abusive work conditions, Amazon extracts labor from their workers until they are injured or die. The abusive policies of Amazon are replicated by their partnerships with arming the police, military and ICE that harm the lives of their factory and delivery workers, predominantly people of color. Antiblackness, agoraphobia, racism, sexism and homophobia are founded and maintained in our material realities and encoded into technological systems’ structural biases. My research as a performance, video artist and scholar examines the connection between local and international modes of incarceration and deportation. 

Hiba Ali is a digital artist, educator, scholar, DJ, experimental music producer and curator based across Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, and Toronto, ON. Their performances and videos concern surveillance, womxn/ womyn of colour, and labour. She studies the geographies of Afro-descent and Indo-Arab communities across the Indian Ocean through music, cloth and ritual. They conduct reading groups addressing digital media and workshops with open-source technology. She is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at Queens University, Kingston, Canada. They are an Assistant Professor of Art, New Media Artist/Feminist Art Discourse, College of Design, Art & Technology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. She has presented their work in Chicago, Stockholm, Toronto, New York, Istanbul, São Paulo, Detroit, Dubai, Austin, Vancouver, and Portland. They have written for C Magazine, THE SEEN Magazine, Newcity Chicago, Art Dubai, The State, VAM Magazine, ZORA: Medium, RTV Magazine, and Topical Cream Magazine.

Territories of Surveillance

Rekkkognition

Under Constant Carceral Watch: Against The Ring

Organizing Against Amazonification

Timeline of Warehouse Workers Fight for Equity

For more information on the Amazonification reading list, please head over to their website.