Mathew Iantorno (he/him)

@mathewiantorno.com

708 Followers 588 Following

📚 PhD candidate at the University of Toronto (iSchool + ICCIT) 🤖 Studies the history, labour, & public impact of retail automation 🛰️ mathewiantorno.com

A sandwich board reading "The Dark Horse Robo-Barista Powered Up And Ready to Serve" in front of a Robo Cafe on Bay Street in Toronto.
A projection screen that reads "Part 1: this story begins in the 90s." Accompanied by a picture of an old 1990s style PC and the old dial up window.
GPTZero AI Detection Rating: 100% AI generated.
A pink blob man saying "oh no"
Candy is Good. By Dr. Walter H. Eddy. Nutrition Expert Head, Good Housekeeping Institute.
Troubling Tech: Critical takes on Algorithms, Interfaces, and Affordances. Crystal Chokshi. Wednesday at 1:30pm.
4S 2026 Toronto. Technopower. Technoscientific futures. 50th anniversary.
Mathew Iantorno presenting at the Centre for Culture and Technology. He stands in front of a slide that reads "Aisle 24 and the Lever" and display a picture of the entryway for a grocery store; and examples of digitla ink price tags.
A PowerPoint slide that reads: Exploring Toronto Automation. There is a picture of a Robo Cafe (an autonomous coffee shop); a PizzaForno (a pizza vending machine); and a self-checkout security screen at a Dollarama.
Mathew Iantorno stands in front of a projection screen delivering a lecture. The screen has pictures of mushrooms with the word "FORAGING" on top.
A cluster of mushrooms with the word "FORAGING" superimposed on top.
A large, teal and white vending machine sitting in the Monkey's Paw bookstore in Toronto. It reads the following: Monkey's Paw Biblio-Mat. Old & Unusual. Every Book a Surprise. No Two Alike. Collect all 112 Million Titles.
Mathew Iantorno, Monday Night Seminar. Led by CCT Graduate Fellow Mathew Iantorno, PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Information. His research explores how retail automation transforms labour practices, consumer responsibility, and public space. Throughout, he explores the long history of artificial intelligence, connecting modern digital platforms with vending machines, automats, and self-service stores. Details + registration TBA. Mar 9 6:00 pm.
Two office workers eating slices of watermelon. The caption reads "Watermelon: The Unofficial Emotional Support Fruit."
The cover of a Scholastic children's book simply titled "Internet". On the cover, children are surfing computer keyboard high in the atmosphere of the earth.
An old newspaper headline that reads "Robot Ramblings." It is accompanied by a picture of a businessman reclined on a sofa and reading a newspaper.
A standalone Pizza Forno vending machine sits in the UTM food court, advertising "Artisan Pizza Ready in less than 3."
A diagram illustrating ownership of Canadian grocery stores. The subheadings and headings are as follow: Loblaws (No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix, Provigo, Maix, Zehrs, Fortinos, Value-mart, Dominion, Atlantic Superstore, Independent, T&T); Sobeys (Safeway, IGA, Fresh Co, Foodland, Longo's, Farm Boy, Thrifty Foods, Les Marches Tradition, Marche BoniChoix, Lawtons Drugs); and Metro (Super C, Good Basics, Adonis, Marche Richelieu, Marche Ami, Jean Coutu, Brunet).
Exterior shot of the University of Windsor's campus during the fall.
Screenshot of a search bar in Adobe Acrobat. The user is searching for the word "dice." AI assistant suggestions ask "Find content related to dice in the doc" and "What's important to know about dice?"
A PizzaForno pizza vending machine sitting in the middle of the floor of an OnRoute in Barrie.
A wireframe drawing of the coach house, the home of the Centre for Culture and Technology.
Students walking in front of Dillon Hall, a gothic revival style building on the University of Windsor's campus, during the summer.
The exterior of Robarts Library, a large brutalist concrete structure, during the summer.
Outside of the Claude T Bissell building, a brutalist structure with the words "Faculty of Information, iSchool" on the outside.
An older gentleman in a blue shirt giving a thumbs up while standing in front of a wall of snacks and check out kiosk.
Title: Check-up on these proven income producers. Substance: If you would like a part-time business of your own, to add handsome profits to your present income; or, if you would like a full-time, easy-to-handle business without the usual overhead expense, and have a nominal amount of money to enter a highly lucrative legitimate field which is not overdone - then write us for PROOF from operators who are REALLY happy and MAKING MONEY on our merchandise units.
The facade of an Aisle24 store in a downtown location.
A picture of a Little Free Library (a small box with a glass door and house-like slanted roof set on a wooden post) in Toronto. A small zine featuring a wizard is situated next to a number of books inside.
Thu June 12, 6:30p.m.-8:00p.m. Making + Playing a Little Free Library RPG Spellbinder is a quick-play tabletop roleplaying game where players borrow books from a Little Free Library and use the words inside to cast powerful (and unpredictable) spells. Join the creator Mathew Iantorno for a short talk about the challenges of developing a game that interacts with urban space. Then, pick up a book, put on your best wizard hat, and play a short demo of Spellbinder. Free! Registration not required. Limited capacity, first come first served! 📍 Fort York Library, 190 Fort York Blvd
A slide featuring the caption "1937 vs. 2024." Two pictures are presented: the first, New York automat strikers picketing in 1937; the second, gig economy employees striking in 2024.
Robot Ramblings. A drawing of a man reclined on a couch reading a newspaper.
Candy is Food. By Dr. Walter H. Eddy. Nutrition Expert Head, Good Housekeeping Institute.
The Automatic Canteen Company became an important part of the depression economy as hard-headed factory supervisors came to realize that "Candy, which had previously been considered as a treat for children, actually constituted a food which was the source of quick energy for hardworking factory employees." Mr. Canteen had done a top-notch job as an "educator" — his efforts had proved that eating candy bars on the job could lighten "the fatigue load," and could actually reduce accidents and boost efficiency.
Workers striking in front of a Horn & Hardart automat in 1937.
Date: Thu June 12, 6:30pm-8:00pm. Title: Making + Playing a Little Free Library RPG. Description: Spellbinder is a quick-play tabletop roleplaying game where players borrow books from a Little Free Library and use the words inside to cast powerful (and unpredictable) spells. Join the creator Mathew Iantorno for a short talk about the challenges of developing a game that interacts with urban space. Then, pick up a book, put on your best wizard hat, and play a short demo of Spellbinder. Free! Location: Fort York Library, 190 Fort York Blvd.
A screenshot of the Research Assistant Beta embedded in the ProQuest Ebook Reader. It offers the following summary of the book being read (The Warehouse by Alessandro Delfanti): 'Work hard, have fun, make history' proclaims the slogan on the walls of Amazon's warehouses. This cheerful message hides a reality of digital surveillance, aggressive anti-union tactics and disciplinary layoffs. Reminiscent of the tumult of early industrial capitalism, the hundreds of thousands of workers who help Amazon fulfil consumers' desire are part of an experiment in changing the way we all work. In this book, Alessandro Delfanti takes readers inside Amazon's...
The West Edmonton Mall, the world's largest, is one example of the continuing mutation of shopping malls in Canada where inclement winter temperatures have given an added boost to developers' ambitions to have them become the new, privatised, centres of the public lives of city dwellers.
A surveillance camera in a Toronto area Dollarama location captures the image of a man and displays it on a screen underneath. The man, in turn, is taking a picture of the camera with his smartphone.
Downtown Toronto, near Front Street and King Street, with the Flatiron building prominently featured.
A still from the Simpsons. Ralph Wiggum is dressed up as a mountie, singing Oh Canada.
A pile of untouched strawberry cartons at Farm Boy. A sign behind reads "Product of USA, no. 1 grade, Strawberries, 3.99/ea."
An assortment of maple-flavoured treats, ranging from syrup to cookies, sits on wooden shelves and crates at the entrance to a Toronto Farm Boy grocery store.
A Balzac's cafe in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood.
A self-checkout kiosk at the Michaels location in downtown Toronto. A button on a touchscreen prompts users to "Tap Here to Begin" alongside an ad for birthday party hosting. The screen is accompanied by a hand scanner and a PoS system.
The self-checkout aisle on the ground floor of the Canadian Tire in the Eaton Centre. A sign in the top-right reads "Exit to Bay St."
People clustered around the self-checkout aisle in the Maple Leaf Gardens Loblaws in Toronto.
A pop up window reading "Mathew Iantorno is now scheduled for deletion."
A PowerPoint slide containing four images: 1) A logo for Astral Media 2) A park bench with metal spikes protruding from the seat and a coin slot embedded in a metal box in the bottom 3) A Toronto bus shelter on King Street fashioned to look like a tropical thatch-roofed hut and 4) A pair of hands holding a smartphone display a Chevrolet ad. The slide is captioned "Astral: Mathew Iantorno."
The provincial flag of Ontario: a red field with Royal Union Flag inset alongside the shield of the Ontario coat of arms.
A bus shelter in Toronto, near Yonge-Dundas Square, covered in palm fronds to advertise Aura Mugler.
An RC Coffee Robo Cafe kiosk, with attached Daan Go Cake Lab vending machine, in a Indigo in Markville. The machines are painted yellow-green with a striped canopy on top and surround by chairs and tables. A young woman stands in front of the touchscreen interface.
The checkout aisle of a UNIQLO store in Toronto, Canada. Five self-checkout kiosks are lined up against a wall.
An exterior view of the George Brown College King Street campus. This red brick building is adorned with the college's logo and rainbow iconography.
Website screenshot: "At I'm Mochi, we do more than serve food; we craft experiences. At the heart of our cafe is a mysterious hole in the wall, a portal where your Mochi Donut delights emerge."
A trade card reading "The House that Jell-O Built." The illustration shows one of the company's factories encased in a brick of golden gelatin, served on a glass plate.
4S 2025 Seattle: Reverberations
Mathew Iantorno, a bearded graduate student in winter gear, is captured on the screen of a surveillance device in a dollar store. He smiles at the camera and takes a picture.