How to Cite: Taiwo, 2020 Subjugating Other Cultural Narratives in the Construction of Immersive Environments.

This Paper feeds into the current transcultural debate surrounding tensions between the construction of immersive technologies within westernised paradigms. In the construction of immersive spaces, tech companies have unconsciously subjugated other cultural frameworks and perspectives. Safiya Umoja Noble’s term ‘technological redlining’ succinctly articulate this subjugation in her book ‘Algorithms of Oppression’ where she says ‘The power of algorithms in the age of neoliberalism and the ways those digital decisions reinforce oppressive social relationships and enact new modes of racial profiling, which I have termed technological redlining. By making visible the ways that capital, race, and gender are factors in creating unequal conditions, I am bringing light to various forms of technological redlining that are on the rise’. (Noble 2018: 01) These assumptions are systematic of what Jean-Paul Sartre referred to in the last century as Neocolonialism (Sartre 2001: 2). Political systems intentionally subjugating other cultural narratives, in order to impose colonial paradigms concerning social activity. These are still the dominant perspectives, still controlling global narratives. ‘Neocolonialism can be described as the subtle propagation of socio-economic and political activity by former colonial rulers aimed at reinforcing capitalism, neo-liberal globalization’. (Taiwo; Accessed 02/05/19) Umoja Noble highlights a key challenge to address this balance, which is in the construction of any digitised decision-making platform, the key point is to understand that all initial mathematical formulations that drive automated decision-making are made by human beings who exist in a specific socio-cultural context.


Technological Redlining
Do not beg to try and seek reason from people who burnt down your house after looting its contents and are now accusing you of being homeless and underdeveloped.
I wrote the sentence above in the style of an African proverb, marking a change in an intellectual strategy as we try to book a seat at the global table of political manifestation. As we Africans wake up around the world, we are increasingly creating our own table, in order to redefine and reclaim our cultural birth-rights. The human diaspora expanded around the world at different times, not because of an existential 'race', but due to its inherent nature for exploration and adaptation.
The concept of race provided a convenient reason for the subjugation of certain groups and the power of 'manifest destiny' for others as seen in the apparent rise in white nationalism within Europe and North America.
These assumptions are systematic of what Jean-Paul Sartre referred to in the last century as Neo-colonialism mentioned above (Sartre 2001 power concerning the continued influence the former colonial master has over their former colonies socio-economic activity and development. Having burnt down our houses, they used the political device of ' aid' to re-enforce our position as victims and losers in the eyes of the world, while they display our stolen artefacts in trophy cabinets called museums re-enforcing their narrative of superiority. Neo-colonialism can be described as the subtle propagation of socioeconomic and political activity by former colonial rulers aimed at reinforcing capitalism, neo-liberal globalization, and cultural subjugation of their former colonies. (Taiwo 2019) It is no wonder that real diversity, regarding cultural difference, is under threat; when it is the hegemonic overlords that determine the criteria for global decision making.
Acceptance is only assumed, when we have reframed and abandoned our ancestral frames of spatial practice; when we accept that their priorities will always put us at the back of the bus. Safiya Umoja Noble highlights a key challenge when trying to address the prejudice with regards to the criteria for selecting search results, which is that, in the construction of any digitised algorithmic decision-making platform, the key point is to understand that all initial mathematical formulations that drive automated decision-making are made by human beings who exist in a specific sociocultural context. If the enlightenment assumptions, which abjected and ignored the rights of the ' other' and their ancestral frames, are still in-place as a global norm, then there will always be subconscious bias. According to Noble: While we often think of terms such as "big data" and "algorithms" as being benign, neutral, all objective, they are anything but. The people who make these decisions hold all types of values, many of which openly promotes racism, sexism, and false notions of meritocracy, which is well documented in studies of Silicon Valley and other tech corridors. (2018: 1) The conclusion at this point, is that the current international neo-liberal frame for global development, concerning digital algorithms, has emerged from an age Taiwo: Subjugating Other Cultural Narratives in the Construction of Immersive Environments 197 of reason that was not designed for women, enslaved or colonised people. Even with the best attempts to adjust and modify these systems, the accommodation of successful protests from the emancipation of women, enslaved people, civil rights and the post-colonial aftermath of de-colonisation, has meant that new algorithms will still harbour the residue of inherent prejudice.

An African Production of Space
These neoliberalist assumptions, underpinned by Western Enlightenment traditions, have been responsible for the production of the immersive spaces in most cityscape environment around the world architecturally and digitally. Henri Lefebvre's book The Production of Space (Lefebvre 1994), challenges out dated assumption surrounding 'space'; re-evaluating, with particular reference to the State, the role the 'individual' and 'society' has in the construction of space. He philosophically and technically deconstructs the Western Enlightenment traditions in the light of contemporary thought, which no longer separates the production of 'lived spaces' from political economy and cultural practice. He argues that social space is a social product, which by its nature is intertextual. There are three main definitions to his theory; • Spatial practice, • Representations of space and • Representational spaces.
Briefly then; Spatial practice is linked to the daily routines within society. Representa-

tions of space identifies the symbiotic correlation between what is lived and what is
perceived with what is conceived. Representational spaces occur as a result of cultural and sub-cultural groups seeking to symbolise their shared social life (Lefebvre 1994).

Spatial practice
This can be seen as an activity that is closely linked to the daily routines of percipients and the social networks they create within their society. The key focus is continuity with a certain amount of cohesion. The use of the term percipient to define an individual in this context, is important here as the assumption is, percipients will be familiar with the practice and its location, by the repetition of their activity.

This identifies the symbiotic correlation between what is lived and perceived with
what is conceived (Lefebvre 1994). This is where we make models that articulate the architectonics of a social environment. This is where we impose a particular knowledge frame in order to organise the construction of space. According to Lefebvre when we create representations of space, we do this through the conceptualised arts of a Scientist, planners, urbanist, technocratic subdividers and social engineers.

Representational spaces
This occurs as a result of cultural and sub-cultural groups seeking to symbolise their shared social life. As a result, they will embody complex symbolisms as a way to represent identity and belonging. Although, with certain exceptions, these tend towards more or less coherent systems of non-verbal symbols and signs.
Space as directly lived through its associated images and symbols, and hence the space of "inhabitants" and "users". (Lefebvre 1994: 39) How we, as Africans in Africa and the African diaspora, perceive and conceive of our lived spaces, has in the last century been framed by either the Abrahamic religions, Capitalism or Communism; all of which, do not adequately represent the plethora of Afrocentric metaphysics that governed pre-colonial societies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This makes African conceptions of lived spaces essentially invisible, as we struggle to imagine a fictitious and literal future. Resistance to this subjugation, can be seen with the rise of Afro-futurism, which was and is a reaction to the lack of an African future in main-stream science fiction. Before Marvel's Black Panther, in all the major science fiction movies, Africa, as a continent, did not really exist in any of these futures. Our knowledge has been successfully banished to the prisons of western museums, forever disconnected from its origins and prevented from creating its own version of spatial practice in the future. Africans that do exist in these futures, have been successfully assimilated into a future conception that reinforces a Westernised He suggests that African American are, in a sense descended from alien abductees and that their experience already embodied a sci-fi nightmare. According to Dery: The notion of Afrofuturism gives rise to a troubling antinomy: Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, and whose To conclude at this point, the models that articulates the architectonics of Westernised social environments, imposed particular knowledge frames in order to organise the construction and production of space; which was never initially designed for women, enslaved and colonised people to be free. It is no wonder that racial profiling persists as unconscious bias in our institutions. They are embedded in the DNA of its construction during Europe's age of reason.