Following the great success of Meet Feminist Tech -Diversifying Insights in Data and AI, the CitizenScience.AI project at ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig invites you to the second part of our colloquium in the winter semester 2023/2024: Reset the Preset – Reflections on Societal Change and Technological Progress. Five sessions are available to read and discuss current texts on the topics of Critical Decoding of AI and Socially Just and Sustainable AI, together with Dr. Sandra Buchmüller, guest scholar in feminist technology research:

• Monday, 27.05.24, 2:50 pm to 4:20 pm
• Monday, 13.05.2024, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
• Thursday, 02.05.2024, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, 13.03.2024, 04:40 p.m. to 06:10 p.m.
• Monday, 04.03.2024, 04:40 p.m. to 06:10 p.m.

The analog venue on the main campus of TUD Dresden University of Technology is:

Merkel-Bau
Helmholtzstraße 14
Room 118
first floor

We regard the colloquium “Reset the Preset – Reflections on Societal Change and Technological Progress” as an open reading and discussion format in which everyone can participate whenever, wherever and however they would like. Proposal of texts is explicitly encouraged.

Events in the series “Reset the Preset – Reflections on Societal Change and Technological Progress”

27.05.2024: Personas

For the last session of the second part of our colloquium, we look at a method from use-centred design for the classification and representation of user groups: Personas. On the one hand, we will discuss the text “Stereotypes and Politics: Reflections on Personas” by Nicola Marsden and Maren Haag, which focusses on the production of personas in general.

To complement and compare this, we look at “Handlung oder Person? Genderreflexive Gestaltung
von Software” by Tanja Paulitz and Bianca Prietl, which analyses this method as a component of scenario-based design with regard to its contribution to gender-reflective design. This follows on from the discussions of the previous colloquia on mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion of classifications, the power of definition and arbitrary classification using the example of apartheid in South Africa, which were addressed in the text by Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh-Star, as well as the discussion of the fundamental question of the extent to which classification systems can depict real phenomena.

13.05.2024: Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences

Furthermore, we read the essay ‘The Case of Race Classification and Reclassification under Apartheid’ from the book Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star.

In our discussion at the beginning of May, we were particularly concerned with the construction of identity. Kevin Guyan states in the introduction to his book Queer Data: ‘However, there exists a long history of political and social struggles over the design of classification systems that present themselves as “purely technical” but promote a biased account of the social world.’ He supports this statement with a reference to Susan Leigh Star, which motivated us to turn to this exciting author. For further reading, we recommend Susan Leigh Star: Grenzobjekte und Medienforschung.

02.05.2024: Queer Data

Next, we to discussed the Introduction and Part I from Kevin Guyan’s book Queer Data, which has been published in 2022. Kevin Guyan ist Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh Business School. His work explores the intersection of data and identity. For a first impression, we recommend the following inspiring discussion, which was recorded as part of Computers, Privacy & Data Protection 2022. Please contact pandu@tu-dresden.de if you do not have your own copy of the book.

13.03.2024: Cyborg Manifesto

At our second meeting, we discussed Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. Based on of a recent interview in Philosophie Magazin (No. 74 February/March 2024), in which she places the article and the figure of the cyborg in the wider context of her thinking and work, we were particularly interested in the question of why this article from 1985 to the present day provides an occasion and starting point for current projections, discussions and inspirations.

04.03.2024: Die Macht der Daten. Warum Künstliche Intelligenz eine Frage der Ethik ist.

The topic of our first meeting was the speech at the University of Osnabrück by Prof. Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff in the year of 2022. It is available as an open access publication of the Osnabrück University Press and as a clip on YouTube:

Professor Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff sparked discussion with his speech on Predictive Privacy at the closing conference of the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden.

Registration

The events will be held in German until further notice. If you wish to discuss certain topics or texts in English, please contact us in person or via email. Please register, stating whether your participation will be analog or digital, at: pandu@tu-dresden.de. We will be happy to provide you with the link to the digital room.