Videocast

Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden has developed an innovative videocast format that brings the project focus Data↔Worlds to life in a new way. In exciting discussions, our doctoral students meet artists and scientists and explore the interfaces between art, research, and digital society. The format opens up diverse perspectives on how we deal with data in our time—critically, creatively, and interdisciplinarily.

Tobias Revell in conversation with Niklas Egberts: Design and the Social Construction of AI

Tobias Revell in conversation with Niklas Egberts: Design and the Social Construction of AI.

In his presentation at Schaufler Lab, London-based designer, artist and researcher Tobias Revell shared insights from his PhD research on the role of design in the construction of AI. Among the strategies that Revell discussed are the construction of technological futures, the invention of use, the spectacle of progress, and technological normativity. Underlying these explorations is a constructivist approach that does not disregard the materiality of technology per se, but approaches AI through the sociocultural practices, scenes and events in which it is constituted as a discursive object. In the discussion, we touched on the conceptual history of enchantment and disenchantment in relation to technology and its implications for contemporary discussions about data-worlds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voNYn2PjJn4

Ted Chiang in conversation with Andrew Erickson: Artistic Context, GenAI, and the Dilution of Intention

The award-winning science fiction writer and one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in AI” reflects on authorship and the humanity of making artistic decisions in the era of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). The session opens with a brief presentation by Chiang based on his recent critical work on GenAI, published in The New Yorker, before opening to an interview and moderated discussion. His interview with doctoral researcher Andrew Erickson investigates important claims intersecting innovation in technology, art, and the humanities as well as the futural visions that shape political and material realities in the present.

The interview is presented here in text format. At the speaker’s request, the session has not been video recorded.

Finn Brunton in conversation with Nelly Saibel: History of Digital Cash and Contemporary Crypto Politics

Finn Brunton im Gespräch mit Nelly Saibel: History of Digital Cash and Contemporary Crypto Politics.

In his presentation at Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, Finn Brunton (UC Davis) talked about the libertarian roots of digital cash and its manifestations in contemporary politics. In the first part, Finn Brunton traces the history of digital money in the Cypherpunk movement and the Extropians, whereby both movements are dedicated to building a technology that enacts certain ideas and beliefs about the future. The socio-technical reality, on the other hand, no longer has any vision of the future at all. In the second part, Finn Brunton and Nelly Saibel (Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden) talk about religious elements in discourses on digital technologies, tensions in libertarianism, and masculinity in Data-Worlds.

https://youtu.be/vIY-QIakNFg?si=pDAvCzRRJZbHWLcA

Frederike van Oorschot in conversation with Marie Briese: Data in Digital Theology: Dimensions, Hermeneutics and Methods

In her conversation with Marie Briese (Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden), PD Dr. Frederike van Oorschot (FEST Heidelberg) provides insight into the field of digital theology. She begins with a short presentation introducing three areas where theology and data intersect: digital theology as “theology on data,” computational theology as “theology by data,” and digital (data-)hermeneutics as “theology with data.” A particular focus is placed on methods of computational theology and on hermeneutical considerations that, building on theology, can enrich other humanities and social sciences research on data and the digital. In response to the presentation, Frederike van Oorschot and Marie Briese engage in a conversation about data constructivism, concepts of truth, and ethical questions that need to be considered in connection with (the research of) data. Once again, it becomes clear that theology offers valuable methodological and hermeneutical foundations for living and researching in data worlds.

https://youtu.be/4wQHADzB3o0?si=jfgtYn3zWtcNFfEK

Shannon Mattern in conversation with Johanna Grosche: Archives, Infrastructures, and the Humanities in Data Worlds

Shannon Mattern in conversation with Johanna Grosche

In her presentation at Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, Shannon Mattern (Director of Creative Research at the Metropolitan New York Library Council) shares insights from her more than twenty-three-year career in academia and her recent journey out of it. She begins with an intellectual autobiography, reflecting on her research on data in relation to worlds and how these projects are shaped by her evolving interests, frustrations, institutional pressures, and broader societal and political changes. She also traces the evolution of the academy and the institutions she has been part of throughout her career. In the second part of the session, Shannon Mattern and Johanna Grosche (Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden) discuss data management and preservation in times of planetary and political change, the challenges and opportunities of cross-disciplinary research, and potential career paths for PhDs beyond academia.

https://youtu.be/NdeXZdg291E?si=TxwAznzFdXxXtaCP

Eryk Salvaggio in conversation with Jasmin Höning: Navigating Noise

In his contribution to the videocast format at Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, researcher and artist Eryk Salvaggio used his concept of the ‘Age of Noise’ to paint a critical picture of generative AI systems as filters, producers and amplifiers of noise. Building on this, a conversation developed with Jasmin Höning (Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden) around two closely intertwined topics: critical AI literacy and Salvaggio’s artistic practice. The conversation centred around myths and narratives surrounding AI – such as notions of control, creativity, and productivity – as well as their social and political effects. The discussion was complemented by a reflection on the role and positioning of artists who use AI reflectively, reject it, or deliberately misuse and misappropriate it in order to reveal power structures and aesthetic and epistemic boundaries.

https://youtu.be/VxQyThcZHR0?si=-o93vrAu4ORt_xK

Frida Mannerfelt in conversation with Marie Briese: Religious Practices and Beliefs in Data Worlds

In this edition of the videocast, Marie Briese (Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden) and Dr. Frida Mannerfelt (Lund University) discuss the state of research in the emerging field of digital theology/digital religion under the title “ Religious Practices and Beliefs in Data Worlds.” Frida Mannerfelt provides insights into her research in the Scripture & Secularism project and into a study on the use of AI in the Church of Sweden. It becomes clear that there are interrelationships between the mediatization and digitization of the world and religion. These are evident in narratives about data-driven technologies, church practices, and, not least, in political debates. Frida Mannerfelt uses examples from both church history and the history of technology to illustrate how helpful a historical perspective on these interactions can be.

https://youtu.be/Q-upcck5XAQ?si=QynUAk02D5ohRxCT

Katrin Becker in conversation with Nelly Saibel: Disembodiment as Flaw in Blockchain

In her presentation at Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, Katrin Becker (University of Luxembourg/Collège International de Philosophie Paris) talked about Blockchain Governance and the role of critique and legal philosophy in research on emergent digital technologies. Her talk focused on the question to which extent blockchain technologies, particularly smart contracts and DAOs, reshape our understanding of law, governance and subjectivity. Katrin Becker argues that blockchain initiates a profound displacement of the symbolic and imaginary basis of law, leading to the emancipation of the body. However, the disembodiment in blockchain-based networks is a flaw in blockchain governance.

https://youtu.be/1ZZ1ZoTkHh0

Réka Patrícia Gál in conversation with Andrew Erickson Controlled Orbit: Making the Astronaut Subject

Réka Patrícia Gál (Technische Universität München) introduced the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden to the “first strike in space” in her videocast presentation. In her conversation with Andrew Erickson (doctoral researcher at the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden), she used the example as a case study to demonstrate how even astronauts in space are continuously monitored through data that has been extracted from and claims to represent them, and how this functions to co-create subjectivity and reality. The discussion then turned to questions of surveillance, the sociopolitical imaginaries that underpin beliefs in what data are and can represent in and about the world, and the value of humanities methods to unpack, analyze, and problem-solve issues surrounding the failures of technological systems to adequately serve human populations who depend on them.

https://youtu.be/1e37TVzLwEk?si=sQlesBXs4q1PObHr