[Air-L] Public Seminars in London: Interfacing Data (23 Oct); 'Digital Subjects' (14th Nov); Algorithmic Politics (18th Dec)

Mon Oct 21 08:30:51 PDT 2019

In case of interest for those in/around London, here are the public seminars organised by the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London this semester.
These are public events so please feel free to forward details to friends, colleagues and anyone else you think might be interested in joining - all are welcome!
Details and abstracts copied below.
Jonathan

## Public Seminar: Interfacing Data: Dashboards as Media Formats
## With Nate Tkacz (Warwick) and Caroline Bassett (Cambridge)
## When? Wed, 23 October 2019, 5-7pm
## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London
## Register: https://dashboards-data.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdashboards-data.eventbrite.co.uk&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cc85ab89b551d484a4cdb08d75148519b%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=Fn0TDPiA19mYwXlHxp0DUaCaVVHFOh5WJqa1491KwLU%3D&reserved=0>

## Public Seminar: Who are we online? On the ‘Digital Subject’ and online personhood
## With Patrick ffrench (KCL), Olga Goriunova (Royal Holloway) and Scott Wark (Warwick)
## When? Thu 14th November 2019, 6-8pm
## Where? Anatomy Lecture Theatre (King's Building K6.29), King's College London, Strand Campus, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS
## Register: https://digital-subjects.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigital-subjects.eventbrite.co.uk&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=4qIKXDNdPQp19fhxJ3FEq1M1JxbYKNhxXBzdKYCnrLY%3D&reserved=0>

## Public Seminar: Algorithmic Politics: Analyzing Strategies of Disruption and Mainstreaming in the Canadian Alt-Right
## With Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) and Ganaele Langlois (York University)
## When? Wednesday 18 December 2019, 5-7pm
## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London, London, WC2R 2LS
## Register: https://algorithmic-politics.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Falgorithmic-politics.eventbrite.co.uk%2F&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=XDTMRnQBHKjIVnSZjIznC8Sj3ZiRY9av03Yxps%2FLa2U%3D&reserved=0>

***

## Public Seminar: Interfacing Data: Dashboards as Media Formats
## With Nate Tkacz (Warwick) and Caroline Bassett (Cambridge)
## When? Wed, 23 October 2019, 5-7pm
## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London
## Register: https://dashboards-data.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdashboards-data.eventbrite.co.uk&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cc85ab89b551d484a4cdb08d75148519b%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=Fn0TDPiA19mYwXlHxp0DUaCaVVHFOh5WJqa1491KwLU%3D&reserved=0>

Join us for a discussion on dashboards, interfaces, formats and data politics with Nate Tkacz (Warwick) and Caroline Bassett (Cambridge).

This event will feature a talk by Nate Tkacz (University of Warwick) titled "On data and formatting: Or, how to think about dashboards", a talk from Caroline Bassett (University of Cambridge) titled "Driversity: What the Dashboard promises?", followed by discussion.

This event is part of an ongoing seminar series on "critical inquiry with and about the digital" hosted by the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kcl.ac.uk%2Fddh&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cc85ab89b551d484a4cdb08d75148519b%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=DvPH5Sxp98gW2m5itDo7kSzF4yr8sVrAxt8n8D4Pim4%3D&reserved=0>. If you tweet about the event you can use the #kingsdh<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fhashtag%2Fkingsdh&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cc85ab89b551d484a4cdb08d75148519b%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=fmKZaAbe81RigS%2Bg3x2oTN3qFijP2jsdqQ5oqmOTpVI%3D&reserved=0> hashtag or mention @kingsdh<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FkingsDH&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cc85ab89b551d484a4cdb08d75148519b%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=niq0fWwZosDKhI7DejhuyZSe%2BmyS3u8K5MEVXzI25JE%3D&reserved=0>. If you'd like to get notifications of future events you can sign up to this mailing list<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmailman.kcl.ac.uk%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fkingsdh-events&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cc85ab89b551d484a4cdb08d75148519b%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=6t69ZCNdAplTvLNT%2FFrEOQjpVA8SZmmW7XW8ZGzNo40%3D&reserved=0>.

On data and formatting: Or, how to think about dashboards
Nate Tkacz (University of Warwick)

Abstract: Data are tricky stuff. They can be the content of a medium, or a medium in their own right. They can be configured in any number of ways -- through numbers, code, colour, line, even sound -- while still retaining their status as data. There is a sense that data are ontologically fluid. In this presentation, I reflect on how I have approached data through the notion of the format and formatting. I present the format as a way to deal with some of the challenges of understanding data's mediations. I use the format of the dashboard as the basis of the inquiry.

Dr Nathaniel Tkacz is a Reader in Digital Media and Culture at The University of Warwick and currently visiting researcher at the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.kcl.ac.uk%2Fddh%2F2019%2F09%2F24%2Fnathaniel-tkacz%2F&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cc85ab89b551d484a4cdb08d75148519b%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=wyvlLrUismbaIlmm2EgTTQJb%2BNYuq5icDlY8dUDYl%2Bk%3D&reserved=0>. His work investigates the political, cultural and methodological dimensions of digital media. This has led to studies of political openness in online communities, practices of ‘mass collaboration’, experimental economic platforms, software forking, trolling, apps, banking and payment services, interfaces, user experience design, digital public services, and environmental situation rooms, among other things. With Geert Lovink, he co-founded the Critical Point of View network for Wikipedia research as well as the MoneyLab research network, and he recently joined the App Studies Initiative. Tkacz is author or editor of a number of books, including Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness (University of Chicago Press, 2015). He is currently working on a book on dashboard interfaces.

Driversity: What the Dashboard promises?
Caroline Bassett (University of Cambridge)

Dr Caroline Bassett is Professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Cambridge where she is currently leading Cambridge Digital Humanities. She was formerly Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Sussex, as well as Director of the Sussex Humanities Lab. Her research is centred on investigating and critically analysing the relationship between communication technologies, cultures and societies. Professor Bassett’s extensive publications include work on digital transformation, mobile and pervasive media, gender and technology, medium theory, digital humanities, science fiction, imagination and innovation, and sound and silence. Her current research is exploring anti-computing. Her latest book ‘Furious: Technological Feminism and Digital Futures’, co-authored with Sarah Kember and Kate O’Riordan, will be out this Autumn.

***

## Public Seminar: Who are we online? On the ‘Digital Subject’ and online personhood
## With Patrick ffrench (KCL), Olga Goriunova (Royal Holloway) and Scott Wark (Warwick)
## When? Thu 14th November 2019, 6-8pm
## Where? Anatomy Lecture Theatre (King's Building K6.29), King's College London, Strand Campus, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS
## Register: https://digital-subjects.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigital-subjects.eventbrite.co.uk&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=4qIKXDNdPQp19fhxJ3FEq1M1JxbYKNhxXBzdKYCnrLY%3D&reserved=0>

When accessing online services, our subjectivity becomes a mediated construct. A panel with Patrick ffrench, Olga Goriunova and Scott Wark

About this Event
What exactly is happening to our subjectivity when it moves online? While we have come to value the rights of a subject regarding its data and understand that the storage of personal data needs to be regulated, a more philosophical understanding of the digital subject’ had long been lacking. Recent publications by Olga Goriunova (Royal Holloway) introducing the concept of a ‘digital subject’ now close this gap.

Taking up the question of online personhood, this panel will start with exploring some of the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of 'the subject' and the 'person' (Patrick ffrench, KCL) to turn from there to ‘the Digital Subject’ (Olga Goriunova, Royal Holloway), and further on to the subject of personalising techniques (Scott Wark, Warwick). What happens to the idea of personhood, when digital hybridity is the de facto mode of contemporary existence? In what way is Goriunova’s ‘digital subject', which comes into being when going online, linked to us? Or, as she suggests, it is instead marked by a profound disconnection?

Patrick ffrench is Professor of French at King's College London. His research focuses on 20th-century French thought, literature and film, and more specifically on critical theory. He is the author of The Time of Theory: A History of Tel Quel (OUP, 1996): The Cut: Reading Bataille's Story of the Eye (British Academy 2000), After Bataille: Sacrifice, Exposure, Community (Legenda 2007); Thinking Cinema with Proust (Legenda 2018), Roland Barthes and Film: Myth, Eroticism, Poetics (Bloomsbury, 2019).

Olga Goriunova is Reader and Director of Research at the Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London. Her concept of ‘the digital subject’ is explored in the articles ‘The Digital Subjects: Persons as Data as People',<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1177%2F0263276419840409&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=clwvd6roiekV9znc2K6P2Ih32HuxKZg%2B0taQY6ZNWUc%3D&reserved=0> in Theory, Culture and Society (2019) and a special issue she edited, which includes her article ‘Face Abstraction! Biometric Identities and Authentic Subjectivities in the Truth Practices of Data’,<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1057%2Fs41286-018-00066-1&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=gJuyKCOAAntedLME18l5XPd1YLNCOhHGySUI%2FT2MMi0%3D&reserved=0> Subjectivity 12(1), 2019

Scott Wark is a Research Fellow for the Wellcome-funded project, ’People Like You: Contemporary Figures of Personalisation’. He is based at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. He researches online culture, amongst other things. Chaired by Mercedes Bunz, Senior Lecturer in the Digital Humanities, King’s College London.

** Olga Goriunova, "The Digital Subjects: Persons as Data as People"<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1177%2F0263276419840409&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=clwvd6roiekV9znc2K6P2Ih32HuxKZg%2B0taQY6ZNWUc%3D&reserved=0> in Theory, Culture and Society (2019)

***

## Public Seminar: Algorithmic Politics: Analyzing Strategies of Disruption and Mainstreaming in the Canadian Alt-Right
## With Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) and Ganaele Langlois (York University)
## When? Wednesday 18 December 2019, 5-7pm
## Where? Safra Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London, London, WC2R 2LS
## Register: https://algorithmic-politics.eventbrite.co.uk<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Falgorithmic-politics.eventbrite.co.uk%2F&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=XDTMRnQBHKjIVnSZjIznC8Sj3ZiRY9av03Yxps%2FLa2U%3D&reserved=0>

A seminar on Algorithmic Politics with Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) and Ganaele Langlois (York University).

Algorithmic Politics: Analyzing Strategies of Disruption and Mainstreaming in the Canadian Alt-Right

This panel focuses on the rise of “fringe” internet platforms and actors and their impact on political discourse. Focusing on the 2019 Canadian Federal Election campaign, which is dominated in large part by the rise of far-right anti-immigrant populist discourse and protests online and off, we examine the insinuation of fringe platforms into mainstream political discourse via more established social media platforms and news properties.

Greg Elmer will present on how political memes, language, and shared political objects (videos, photos, images, graphics, posts, etc) originate from fringe platforms such as 4-Chan and circulate to disrupt and shape the political discourse, imaginaries and landscape.

Ganaele Langlois will present on how a new qualitative digital method – the research persona – enables tracking the affective triggers through which one can identify with specific types of misinformation and disinformation objects and end up being profiled and curated as a alt-right member.

Greg Elmer is Bell Media Research Chair and Director of the Catalyst Research Hub at Ryerson University. Greg is a digital media scholar and documentary film maker. His next film investigates the plight of 'no media' communities in S.Africa, the Netherlands and Russia. And his next book will trace the history of financialization in 'new' media companies.

Ganaele Langlois is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies as York University. Her work focuses on digital methods and critical theory to examine questions of power and subjectivity through digital media platforms and infrastructures. She is the author of Meaning in the Age of Social Media (Palgrave, 2014).

These events are part of an ongoing seminar series on "critical inquiry with and about the digital" hosted by the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kcl.ac.uk%2Fddh&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=8pJc8txBoa%2Fp1ozYlZppiTU8YRPnDN9iOWdZLGI02Mo%3D&reserved=0>. If you tweet about the event you can use the #kingsdh hashtag or mention @kingsdh. If you'd like to get notifications of future events you can sign up to this mailing list<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmailman.kcl.ac.uk%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fkingsdh-events&data=01%7C01%7Cjonathan.gray%40kcl.ac.uk%7Cd205316cc6534ce763b508d75605293e%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=Ca3Ai2n%2BhdlOzk6WtHImGcwWmm2qc2Z0D1SggQ6LebY%3D&reserved=0>.

--
Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org<http://jonathangray.org/> | @jwyg<http://twitter.com/jwyg>
Lecturer in Critical Infrastructure Studies
Department of Digital Humanities
King’s College London

Recent publications and projects:

  *   Gray, J. (2019). Data Witnessing: Attending to Injustice with Data in Amnesty International’s Decoders Project<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1573915>. Information, Communication & Society.
  *   Gray, J. & Bounegru, L. (eds.) (forthcoming) The Data Journalism Handbook: Towards a Critical Data Practice<http://bit.ly/ddjbook-aup-toc-preview>. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  *   Gray, J., Gerlitz, C., & Bounegru, L. (2018) Data Infrastructure Literacy<https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718786316>. Big Data & Society.
  *   Gray, J. (2018). Three Aspects of Data Worlds<http://krisis.eu/three-aspects-of-data-worlds>. Krisis: Journal for Contemporary Philosophy.
  *   Bounegru, L., Gray, J., Venturini, T., & Mauri, M. (2018). A Field Guide to “Fake News” and Other Information Disorders<http://fakenews.publicdatalab.org/>. Amsterdam: Public Data Lab.