Spring 2018
Anticipating the rollout of the General Data Protection Regulation, we in ETHOS Lab started to prepare installations and experiments for engaging with this significant event. We blacked out our lab to host a deletion poetry rave, and we blew up a giant bubble to invite data subjects to meditate.
Compliance, the installation
While the Danish Association of Science and Technology Studies were having their conference, ETHOS Lab erected a giant bubble and named it Compliance. Entrance only permitted to those who delete a piece of data! Watch a video here.
Great Deletion Poetry Rave
Playing on the GDPR acronym, we hosted the Great Deletion Poetry Rave, inviting guests to delete sections of the GDPR text in order to create poems.
GDPR wallpaper for the summer
We left the GDPR wallpaper hanging over the summer to properly prepare for the task of curating a little collection of deletion poems we had been musing about.
Autumn 2018
Finally time to have a look at the poems and make a reality of our chapbook dreams. But chapbook dreams require hours scanning wrinkly A4 sheets of marked up GDPR, getting quotes for printing a preferably ‘pretty’ artifact such as the chapbook of our dreams, and careful work interpreting the compositions of the poems while making the .pdfs for the print shop of choice…
From the GDPR wall to the chapbook
We had decided to compile deletions poems from ETHOS and Oxford deletion poetry Raves. After the summer, we met up to start editing the chapbook, in which the poems would be collected. We were joined by new Lab Assistant Bertil Ipsen and artist, Dave Cohn, who also supplied the visuals for our deletion rave. Even after curating the poems to include, it would take weeks to lock down the design of a potential chapbook holding them.
GDPR: Deletion Poems
After a wait that seemed like forever, 200 copies of our chapbooks arrived just before the Christmas break. We had settled on a layout by Norwegian ANAGRAM.
Spring 2019
With 200 copies of the chapbook sitting in a weathered cardboard box, we prepared to launch our GDPR: Deletion Poems. Through our launch party and subsequent ITU communications departments wrote an article about our GDPR project, and hosted a poetry competition on Facebook.
GDPR: Deletion Poems chapbook launch party, ETHOS Lab at ITU in Copenhagen
On February 22 2019 we had the official launch of the GDPR: Deletion Poems chapbook. Editors and Co-Heads of Lab Rachel Douglas-Jones and Marisa Cohn hosted and explained our year-long engagement with the GDPR.
Launching the chapbook with cake
The ETHOS Lab was filled with guests as we officially unveiled the chapbook and celebrated with cake.
The chapbook parcel-a-thon
The word was spreading. Upon our launch and mentions in media, we received a ton of requests for copies of the chapbook. So we set aside some time to parcel up 70+ envelopes with a chapbook and a note from the lab to all the curious data subjects who requested a copy. We hope you enjoy it!
GDPR: Deletion Poems chapbook launch party at Oxford
For those across the pond, an invitation to the second iteration of the chapbook launch party.
The Oxford launch party
Co-Head of ETHOS Lab Rachel Douglas-Jones clutching one of only two large-scale chapbooks at the Oxford launch. Thanks to everyone for coming out!
Autumn 2019
In autumn of 2019, we continued to engage the public in responding creatively to the GDPR.
Deletion/Erasure Poetry at Techfestival
ETHOS Lab is hosting a session on GDPR deletion poetry at the Techfestival in Copenhagen.
The General Data Protection Regulation is brought up for discussion and artful deletion with researcher in sociology of law, Katja De Vries and Lab Director Rachel Douglas-Jones. Participants will learn about the history of Erasure Poetry as a form of protest art and its role in different traditions, before making their own GDPR poem.
The exploration prompts questions of what GDPR mean for citizens in their everyday worlds. Read more on the official Techfestival x ETHOS Lab Facebook event.