Aug/Sep 2023

Entering Autumn: Lab Updates

Hi there, 

Here at ETHOS Lab we’re back in full swing. We’re a few weeks into the semester now, and it’s been great to feel that new-semester buzz. As always, we have a few updates to share, and a few things to look forward to in the near future. 

I hope you’re all doing well, and I wish you a soft transition from summer to autumn.

 - Henriette 

We’d always love to hear your feedback on the newsletter. Reach us here: ethos@itu.dk 

What’s new?  

DMI summer school 
Our fantastic Assistant Technologist Luis Landa attended this year’s Digital Methods Initiative summer school in Amsterdam in July. There, Luis worked on two projects. The first one was about the emerging subculture of ‘conspirituality’ in TikTok. Conspirituality is the combination of conspiracies and spirituality and it manifests in different ways in the platform. The focus for this project was on creating a multimodal footprint of the content focusing on image and sound.

The seconds project used our experimental YouTube subtitle downloader alongside NLP analysis of thousands of ‘educational’ videos about climate change. This, combined with multimodal clustering of the text, images, hashtags and social relationships inside the app, allowed for the clustering of the content into distinctive. These were then used to relate to the way these are ranked by the YouTube algorithm and also compared to real-life events related to the climate crisis such as flooding and fires.

During the summer school, Luis also got hands-on with different digital methods tools which we have updated and made available at the lab. There is an upcoming TiP Salon on October 11th where Luis will showcase the research he and the group did during the summer school, and do a mini-tutorial on how to use the tools from the summer school. 

We look forward to learning even more from Luis in the coming months. 

New faces in the lab
We’re stoked to be welcoming new faces to the lab this semester. Louie Meyer will be joining us as a Lab TA and will be supporting Henriette in the development of a workshop series which we will share more about in next month’s newsletter. In addition, Luna Rasmussen is joining the lab as a member. Luna has recently started her PhD research at ITU. In the coming weeks we will be putting up some proper introductions on the ETHOS website, where you will be able to read more about her work and interests.

Congrats to Alena
At the lab we also wanted to extend a big congratulations to lab member Alena Thiel who has received the Horizon Europe’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral fellowship for her project, MUNDI. For this project, Alena will investigate the use of digital innovations for the predictive anticipation, real-time analysis, and early intervention in multiple and intersecting threats to human security in Ghana. You can read more about the project here. 

Visiting researcher: Alison Harvey
Last week we had the absolute joy of hosting associate prof. Alison Harvey from York University in Toronto, Canada. Her research focuses on issues of inclusivity, justice, and accessibility in digital culture, with an emphasis on games, social media platforms, and creative work.

Alison presented her research team's project with the non-profit Montreal-based Pixelles on community organising for inclusion in games. This research formed part of her Canadian SSHRC funded project Assessing the Impact of Inclusivity Organizing in Digital Games. Hanna Wirman from the Centre for Digital Play also kindly joined us as a discussant for Alison’s presentation. 

Following Alison’s talk, she hosted a workshop on the challenges and opportunities of community-engaged scholarship in the context of the neoliberal university. 

What's next?

Apply now for the ETHOS Lab Junior Researcher programme
In other exciting news, we are now recruiting our next cohort of Junior Researchers. Deadline September 21, 23:59. For more information, visit ethos.itu.dk/teaching_activities/

To meet previous JRs and learn more about the programme, join us in the lab (3A30) TODAY Sep 13, 15:00-16:00.

For questions regarding the programme or the application, contact ETHOS Lab Manager: Henriette Friis at hefh@itu.dk.

Visit from Sandra Jeppesen  
Later this month we look forward to welcoming prof. Sandra Jeppesen from Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. Sandra is coming here as part of ‘the Smart[er] Cities Project’, and we look forward to learning more about Sandra’s research on the implications of Smart City technologies. 

Save the date: Ada Lovelace day 
As always, the lab will be hosting an event on the occasion of Ada Lovelace day. This year the day falls on October 10th - and you’re invited to join us. The details for the event will be announced in next month’s newsletter. But for now you can mark your calendars, in case you would like to join us. I can already reveal that…there will be cake. 

Out of office
During July and August the lab staff will be out of office at different times. This means that this newsletter will take a break over the summer and return in September with lots of exciting updates and things to come. 

(Not so) new on the blog

Reclaiming through feminist methods: Stories from fashion, academia, urban planning and the arts

Written by Marisa Cohn, edited by Henriette Friis.   Reflections from the Feminist Futures Copenhagen Panel Reclaiming through feminist methods: Stories from fashion, academia, urban planning and the arts On a sunny Friday afternoon on April 21st, four practitioners Eliyah Mesayer, Sofie Burgos-Thorsen, Sadaf ‘Saf’ Hayat, and Hilda Rømer came together at Space10 for the event “Reclaiming through feminist methods: …

Read more.

 Wishing you all a beautiful rest of your day!

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ETHOS Lab

www.ethos.itu.dk 

Co-heads of Lab: Marisa Cohn & Jessamy Perriam
Lab Manager: Henriette Friis