Speaking at Breaking the Code 2026

This week, Dan Verständig will participate in Breaking the Code: Hacktivating Non-Normative Algorithms, taking place at the Universidade do Porto from 18–19 June 2026.

Bringing together scholars and practitioners from media studies, critical code studies, digital humanities, art, and education, the conference explores how computational systems can be challenged through critical, creative, and non-normative approaches. This year’s theme, “Error 403 – Critical Refusals,” invites participants to rethink resistance, interruption, and refusal in digital cultures.

Dan’s talk, “Refusing to Run: Critique as Practice in Critical Computational Literacy,” examines how critique becomes educational not by fostering ever more competent interaction with computational systems, but by cultivating moments of refusal, interruption, and non-performance. From the perspective of Critical Computational Literacy, glitches, errors, and breakdowns are understood not as failures, but as productive pedagogical openings.

We are looking forward to engaging in discussions with colleagues from across disciplines and to contributing educational perspectives to the conversations on critical algorithmic practices.

More information about the conference is available at https://coda.letras.up.pt/brkcode/.