October 2021

Another round of "smart"

It seems like the discussions of “smart” technologies are returning to the centre of academic discussions. The notion of smart sticks easily, and the discussion both covers smart cities, homes, cars, policing, phones, and even states.

In the Lab community, we are reorienting ourselves towards the discussions and are reflecting on the implications of the wide-ranging technologies; how smart are they really - to whom - and how are they affecting us and the societies we live in?

Jessamy Perriam is along with Stina Hasse Jørgensen currently working on a series of workshops exploring the smart home. In the first workshop, they used Dumit’s implosion method (2014) to unfold the smart speakers of Google Home and Amazon Alexa, and will explore the reflections again through Light, Burgess, and Duguay’s walkthrough method (2016) in a following workshop. 

Sometimes the promise of digitalisation leads us to assume consistency and reliability, however, as most researchers working with digital methods have come to realise, this promise does not uphold. Mace Ojala, Line Henriksen & Katrine Meldgaard Kjær are facilitating a seminar on November 15th, 12.00-14.00, on absent data and the frustration, confusion, and laughter this may bring. 

Movements embracing digital retreat are blossoming, as well as research on numbing behaviour following clever app designers who wants us to keep spending our time and attention on their platforms. Amongst the Lab community, we also experience the compulsive urge to check our mails and other inboxes and the crave of likes. Some of us have found ourselves not sticking to our digital behaviour commitments or deleting the data tracks we know are there. Therefore, we are offering a workshop on Digital Selfcare on October 29, 16.00-17.00, where we hope to create a collective space for reflection and getting this done. Basically, treat our digital self!

Keep up to date with the Lab by subscribing to the newsletter and follow us on twitterfacebook or Instagram.

 

All the best for your Octobers and hope to see you in the Lab,


ETHOS Lab
www.ethos.itu.dk 
Co-heads of Lab: Marisa Cohn & Rachel Douglas-Jones
Lab Manager: Merethe Riggelsen Gjørding

 

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Workshop: Digital Self-Care

October 29, 16.00-17.00ITU Café Analog

Next Friday, we will host another round of Digital Self-Care. This is a space for getting connected with our digital behaviour and containing our data tracks. The workshop both includes reflection exercises as well as prompts to get things done! We utilise the Data Detox Kit which is created and made available by the Berlin-based NGO Tactical Tech. 

Sign up is not needed, just show up and bring your devises! 

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Seminar: Argh, where's my data?!

November 22, 12.00-14.00⎟ITU, ETHOS Lab

In recent years, automated data collection driven or supported research methods have gained popularity within the social sciences and humanities. With this increase in popularity, it becomes ever more pertinent to consider how to engage with digital data, and how both engagement and data are situated, messy, and contingent.
Join a seminar 
facilitated by Mace Ojala, Line Henriksen & Katrine Meldgaard Kjær on missing data, and bring your own experiences for not finding the data you thought would be there, and how that affected you and the research process.

Sign up: write to ethos@itu.dk by November 15.

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Welcome to our new cohort of JRs

Congratulations to the 5 students who have just been accepted as Junior Researchers at ETHOS Lab; David Søbæk Olsen, Hanna Wideman Grue, Isabelle Engelke, Simone Fuglsang Gross, and Teresa Bundgård!

The Junior Researchers have applied with their own individual projects, and we look forward to follow them and their different projects in this as well as the spring semester. Their projects respectfully covers Facebook's community guidelines and digital democracy; bots and social media communities; Estonia's digitisation and ambition of being a digital society; visibility and mapping of queer communities in DK; and women in blockchain investment.

During their time as JRs, they will write up blog posts about their process and findings, so you will be able to stay tuned.

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Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day

We had so much fun creating code poems on Ada Lovelace Day!

Mixing feminist quotes with code syntax or (un)runable codes, we related to the language of code differently as well as human readable language. We reflected on the inequality pattern within STEM today, and seeked out experiences of women, non-binaries and transpeople working in STEM, whose voices are present in some of our poems.

We are moving forward with creating a booklet on code poetry, which will be an enjoyable and thought-provoking endeavour.

We willl keep you updated!

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We'll be attending:

The Smartification of Everything  - A Symposium and Exhibition connecting diverse Fields and Media

Symposium March 10-11, 2022⎟  Exhibition March 10-17, 2022 

We are excited to be attending this event, which aims to bring scholars, art- and design-inclined researchers in dialogue.

"The ‘Smartification of Everything’ is an event that is comprised of a symposium with oral presentations and keynote speakers, an exhibition (at a gallery at the Department of Visual Arts), showcasing (multi)media and art work that may include short films, visual essays or vignettes, podcasts and audio productions, websites, or other creative and collaborative formats, and interactive events inviting submissions for (smart) city walks,  hands-on workshops, and similar participatory formats. This will be a hybrid event with an in-person and virtual component. "

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PhD & Job Calls

Postdoctoral Researcher Data Technologies and PracticesThe Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice at the Utrecht School of Law, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance, is looking for a postdoctoral Researcher for the ERC-funded project INFO-LEG to study data practices and technologies with a view to fundamentally restructure legal protection against information-driven harms. We offer a temporary position (0.8 - 1.0 FTE) for a period of 18 months, starting as soon as possible, but no later than 1 March 2022. Deadline: November 10

PhD position Transition Pathways Technology-for-ecology-based farming: University of Twente is seeking a (4 year) PhD candidate to study expectations and imaginaries and explore possible transition pathways related to the new concept of ‘Technology-4-Ecology-based Farming’ (T4E). The PhD project is part of the Synergia project that aims to develop ecological forms of arable, dairy and horticulture farming and new types of technological and socio-technical systems that challenge current forms of agriculture. Deadline: November 2

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ETHOS LAB Open Hours 

Lab TA Mace and Lab Manager Merethe are now in Lab lab during open hours:

Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10.00-14.00.

Come by for a chat, some support on your project, or to work in the space!

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