Natalie Sontopski // Strategies of Speculation. „Doing speculation“ in the Field of Creative AI

Table of contents

      1. Contact
      2. Research Project: Strategies of Speculation. „Doing speculation“ in the Field of Creative AI
      3. CV
      4. Research Interests
      5. Publications
      6. Presentations
      7. Teaching
      8. Projects
      9. Links

Contact

Natalie Sontospki © privat
Name

Natalie Sontopski

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Contact Information
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Hochschule Merseburg:

Eberhard-Leibnitz-Straße 2, RZ/39

06127 Merseburg

Germany

work Tel.

Research Project: Strategies of Speculation. „Doing speculation“ in the Field of Creative AI

Subject: Sociology
Mentoring professor: Jun. Prof. Dr. Susann Wagenknecht, Prof. Dr. Stefan Meißner

Smart fridges, robomowers, intelligent personal assistants and autonomous drones - software based on algorithmic decision systems seems to be in everything nowadays. AI systems are not just found in industry and and service sector but also as so-called „creative AI“ in creative fields. In these areas they are oftentimes applied in a speculative context. Speculation, meaning an experimental and hypothetical line of thought transcending tangible reality, can take the shape of science-fiction-narratives but also show itself in narratives which are less futuristic and more focused on the present.

The analysis of „doing speculation“ and its possibilities in Creative AI or, to put it differently, the strategies of speculations are at the core of Natalie Sontopski cumulative dissertation project: how and where are strategies of speculation applied to which end? To ask these questions means to research if strategies of speculation could be tools in the discussion about technological potentials and social inequality and of assistance in overcoming the limitations of current discourse strategies. The aim of this project is to identify the adaption of strategies of speculation in the field of Creative AI and analyze their success or failure. A scale for productive strategies of speculation in Creative AI can then be deduced from basis of this groundwork.

CV

since 2021 Co-Founder of Moving Target Collective
since 2020 Curator of  KI-Convention KI&Wir*
since  2018 Research Assistant Komplexlabor Digitale Kultur, University of Applied Sciences Merseburg
since  2012 Co-Founder of Non-Profit Code Girls
2013 - 2018 Working for different corporations in the field of e-commerce and Marketing

2009 - 2012

M.A. European Studies, University of Leipzig, Uniwersytet Wrocławski
2005- 2009 B.A. Sociology with minor in history , University of Konstanz

Research Interests

  • Feminist Human-Maschine-Studies
  • Design Sociology
  • Speculative Design
  •  Interaction Design
  • Code Literacy
  •  History of Technology

Publications

  • Sontopski, Natalie. 2021. „Siri, warum kannst Du nicht wütend werden? Strategien der Spekulation als Instrument feministischer Praxis“, in: Freiburger Zeitschrift für Geschlechterstudien (27) 1 1. (noch nicht erschienen)
  • Hoffmann, Julia und Natalie Sontopski. 2020. „Bildet Banden!“, in: New Work Mum 2, S.33- 34.
  • Sontopski, Natalie. 2019. „Das Komplexlabor Digitale Kultur als Grenzobjekt“, in: Harzer Hochschulschriften, S. 150-163.
  • Sontopski, Natalie. 2019. „Hey Siri!? Wie wir alte Stereotype durch neue Technologien reproduzieren“, in: Kursbuch 199, S. 62-75.
  • Hoffmann, Julia und Natalie Sontopski. 2016. We Love Code. Das kleine 101 des Programmierens, Leipzig: Koehler & Amelang.

Presentations

  • Talk for TEDxUniHalle:  „When Computers were Female“, May 2019 Halle
  • Talk for re:publica „Disrupting Education: Learn to Code!“, May 2019 Berlin
  • Keynote „Do Machines have Prejudices?“ bei Frauenwirtschaftstag Ludwigshafen, October 2019
  • Lightning Talk about Femtech at Roundtable IV Europäische Kommission and AI Society Labs, Berlin October 2020
  • Lecture at Herbsttagung der Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopldina „Artificial Intelligence and Weltverstehen“: “Siri, are you angry? The Privilege of Anger. Bias in Voice Assistants“. 02. 10. 2020
  • Lecture at lecture series „Imitations of Humans“, November 2020 Halle
  • Lecture at STS Conference Graz: "The privilege of anger. Speculating about Embedded Bias in Voice Assistants." in Track B.11: Algorithmic inequality. lntersectional divisions in the digital society. 03. 05. 2021
  • Lecture at STS Conference Italia "The privilege of anger. Speculating about Embedded Bias in Voice Assistants." in Track Disentanglement of Technofeminism, 17. 06. 2021
  • Lecture at Symposium "Queer AI" Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden "Hack Back! Historic Exclusion of  Queerness in AI and Strategies of Hacking back, Dresden 25. 06. 2021

Teaching

  • WS 2019/2020 Gender and Digitalization, University of Applied Sciences Merseburg
  • WS 2020/21 Sociology of Love, University of Applied Sciences Merseburg
  • SS 2021 Talk to Me - Disembodied Voices and Politics of Human-Machine Interaction, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art Halle
  • SS 2021 "Let's Chat“, University of Applied Sciences Merseburg

Projects

  • Code Girls: Non-Profit that organizes workshops and talk about programming, Code, AI and digital culture for girls and women
  • My home is my burg: Interdisciplinary cooperation between der University of Applied Sciences Merseburg and Burg Giebichenstein University of Art Halle. The focus lies on a mix of experimental formats, speculative elements, applied practice and in-depth theory. And the goal is to think technology differently – and in the process to question concepts of language, gender and design.
  • Moving Target Collective: The collective is a space where members contribute their individual skills to create artwork with a critical approach to AI

Links

About this page

Lena Ludwig-Hartung
Last modified: Jul 07, 2021