Imagining Otherwise with Asmelash Teka Hadgu

Titled after Lola Olufemi’s “Experiments in Imagining Otherwise”, this lecture series learns from established practices that shift the focus from European contexts or knowledge systems and instead champions decolonial epistemologies and methodologies. We will navigate the space between what is and what could be, weaving through an exploration of identities and the possibility of living otherwise.

In this online event Asmelash Teka Hadgu will talk about his work at the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR) engaging in algorithmic bias and racial equity. This includes a series called "Imagining a different future" which, among other topics, explores the Internet for our grandmas. Asmelash will also discuss his work at Lesan where they are building language technologies to empower marginalised communities.

Asmelash Teka Hadgu is the Co-founder and CTO of Lesan and a fellow at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). At Lesan, he has built state-of-the-art machine translation systems to and from Amharic, Tigrinya and English. Prior to Lesan, Asmelash did his PhD at the Leibniz University Hannover where his research focused on applied machine learning for applications in scholarly communication, crisis communication and natural language processing in low resource settings.

Please note this event will be held online - register to attend to receive the zoom link to join the event.

Image: Asmelash Teka Hadgu

The Imagining Otherwise event series coincides with the As Hardly Found in the Art of Tropical Architecture exhibition on display in the AA Gallery from 20 January to Saturday 25 March 2023.