Pillars & Umbrellas
Table of contents
Pillars endure. Until the next paradigm. Umbrellas offer protection. But the storm bends them and they are quickly forgotten. Both symbolize democracy as a prerequisite for the success of gender equality and the appreciation of different realities of life. The Pillars & Umbrellas event series (with the formats Dialogue, HandsOn, Visual Takes) reflects the core topics of gender equality, participatory justice, sustainability and cultural diversity in various formats.
Pillars & Umbrellas is a project by ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig in cooperation with the Officer for the Protection of Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities at TU Dresden.
The Pillars & Umbrellas event series creates a participatory and inclusive platform that addresses the impact of artificial intelligence on our society. Through versatile and connectable formats, the dialog between developers and users is intensified with the aim of reflecting on artificial intelligence as a citizen science.
© Henrike Terheyden
© Crispin-Iven Mokry
© Michael Kretschmar
© BGFB/assistance of DALL·E 2
© Henrike Terheyden
© BGFB/assistance of DALL·E 2
© Nele Konopka/Tübingen AI Center
© Crispin-Iven Mokry
© Henrike Terheyden
CURRENT EVENTS
DIALOGUE - Lecture: Overcoming boundaries in the age of artificial intelligence - Japan as a scientific cooperation partner from a cultural perspective
In the rapidly developing world of science and technology, where innovation knows no boundaries, the fusion of cultures and technologies represents the seminal moment of human creativity. Japan stands out in this regard by combining its deep-rooted historical realities with cutting-edge technological advancements. This particular synergy provides a platform to look at various social issues - including education, sustainability and gender equality - from new perspectives. In this conversation with our speakers, we invite you to explore and discuss the facets of Japanese culture in today's light.
Date to be announced.
Format: Online via Zoom (English language)
About the speakers:
Xiangguo Wang, born in China, studied engineering at Yamanashi University in Japan and as an exchange student at TU Dresden. Since graduating, he has been living and working in Tokyo, currently with one of the leading BESS project development and e-data management companies in Japan in the renewable energy sector.
Karsten Michalke studied social sciences at TU Dresden and Yamanashi University in Japan. Since 2019, he has been a Research Associate at the Chair of Social Education and Didactics of Social Education at TU Dresden.
DIALOGUE - Colloquium Part 2 - Reset the Preset - Reflections on Societal Change and Technological Progress
After 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 summer semester 2024. Three new dates 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 researcher for feminist technology research:
Monday, May 27, 2024, 2:50 - 4:20 p.m.
For the last session of the second part of our colloquium, we will deal with a method from use-centered 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 focuses on the production of personas per se. Complementing and comparing this, we deal with "Action or person?
Gender-reflective design of software" by Tanja Paulitz and Bianca Prietl, which examines this method as a component of scenario-based design with regard to its contribution to gender-reflective design. We thus follow 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 examination of the fundamental question of the extent to which classification systems can represent real phenomena.
Monday, 13.05.2024, 13:00 - 14:30
Geoffrey C. Bowker, Susan Leigh Star; Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences (1999, Chapter 6)
For our second meeting in May, 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 examination of identity construction. 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 backs up this statement with a reference to Susan Leigh Star, which motivated us to turn to this fascinating author. For further reading, we recommend Susan Leigh Star: Boundary objects and media research
Thursday, 02.05.2024, 13:00 - 14:30 h
Kevin Guyan (2022), Queer Data, Introduction and Part I
Kevin Guyan is 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 exciting discussion, which was recorded as part of Computers, Privacy & Data Protection 2022.
General:
Please contact if you do not have your own copy of the book in question.
Analog venue on the main campus of TU Dresden: Merkel-Bau, Helmholtzstraße 14, room 118, first floor
As in previous meetings, we see the colloquium as an open reading and discussion format in which everyone can participate in terms of time, location and content as they see fit. The submission of text suggestions is expressly encouraged.
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 by e-mail.
Please register, stating whether you wish to participate in analog or digital form, to: . We will be happy to provide you with the link to the digital room.
Review of past colloquia and substantive discussions:
The topic of our first discussion this year was the Osnabrück University Speech 2022 by Prof. Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff. It is available as an open access publication from Universitätsverlag Osnabrück and as a recording on YouTube:
Prof. Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff already got us discussing at the final meeting of the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden with his talk on Predictive Privacy.
At our second meeting, we discussed Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto. Based on 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 larger context of her thinking and work, we were particularly concerned with the question of why this article from 1985 to the present day provides an occasion and starting point for current projections, discussions and inspirations.
PREVIOUS EVENTS
WS 2023/2024 - DIALOGUE - Colloquium Part 1 - Meet Feminist Tech - Diversifying Insights in Data and AI
Under the direction of Dr. Sandra Buchmüller, visiting professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering at TU Dresden, the CitizenScience.AI project at ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig invited to a colloquium in the winter semester 2023/2024.
The event is an open reading and discussion format in which everyone could participate in terms of time, location and content.
On three dates, current texts on the topics of feminist tech, data and AI were read and discussed together:
- Thursday, 30.11.2023, 13:00 - 14:30
Sophie Toupin - Shaping feminist artificial intelligence - Monday, 15.01.2024, 16:00 - 17:30
Kate Crawford (2021): Atlas of AI. Power, Politics and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
- Tuesday, 23.01.2024, 14:50 - 16:20
Kate Crawford (2021): Atlas of AI, especially the chapter Conclusion.Power
(Please contact if you do not have your own copy)
November 2023 - DIALOGUE - Hope in the Climate Crisis - Artificial Intelligence in the Context of Environmental Sustainability and Social Responsibility - Symposium
What is it all about? The climate crisis is here and is already exacerbating economic and social inequalities on a global scale. Sustainable concepts for countermeasures therefore reflect the most diverse scenarios and interactions and discuss the moment of responsibility of the individual and society, also in science, against the background of diverse value structures. Artificial intelligence can support problem-solving that meets current challenges in a transdisciplinary and networked way.
These and other theses were discussed together with exciting guests on 10.11.2023. The welcome address was given by Dr. Andrea Blumtritt, State Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination. There were exciting inputs from:
Prof. Dr. Carmen Leicht-Scholten, RWTH Aachen,
Video contribution to the symposium
Dr. Sandra Buchmüller, TU Dresden
Sustainability needs diversity. The importance of gender and diversity aspects for socially just technology development
Prof. Dr. Stefan Gumhold, TU Dresden/ScaDS.AI
Artificial intelligence in the climate crisis
and the TU Environmental Initiative - tuuwi
The students' perspective
The program was accompanied by Dr. Göde Both, Scientific Advisor, DZHW Berlin
(Gender MINT digital) and Henrike Terheyden (artist from Dresden - Graphic Recording).
Further information on the symposium
23 - HANDS ON - Exhibition chocolate robots and deepfakes
The exhibition "Schokoroboter und Deepfakes" was on display from June 26 to July 14, 2023 in various rooms of the Faculty of Computer Science in the Andreas-Pfitzmann-Bau at TU Dresden.
During the exhibition, a workshop led by the Chair of Didactics of Computer Science for ScaDS.AI took place. Further workshops are planned. The aim is to continue the dialog started in Tübingen together with the students. Computer science workshops already take place regularly in the EduInf student laboratory at TU Dresden.
Other experts from the Responsible AI research area at ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig are involved in the implementation, partly in collaboration with the Dresden artist Nazanin Zandi.
Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence: how it is changing our everyday lives, but also how it will fundamentally influence our lives in the future. But what do young people think about AI - the generation whose future everyday life will be most strongly influenced by AI? What problems do they think should be solved with AI? What should researchers be campaigning for? What fears do they have - and what are their needs? And what image do they associate with AI?
The Tübingen AI Center's outreach team asked itself these questions and passed them on to around 200 students aged 11 to 19: in the form of an online survey in which Tübingen machine learning researchers also participated - sometimes relating to their specific field of research, sometimes application-related, ethical or philosophical.
In addition, the team visited comprehensive schools and secondary schools in Tübingen and Grimma in spring 2022 to get into conversation and collect stories. In most cases, the topic of AI was initially discussed in general terms: from "Alexa" to "social media". However, the discussions quickly became more complex. Fears of the future, wars and social values were discussed.
Berlin-based comic essayist Julia Schneider translated the results into pointed comic texts. Kristina Laube, a trained journalist and science communicator at the Tübingen AI Center, supplemented these with compact scientific texts on the topics that emerged from her conversations with the young people. The result is a content-rich comic that owes its expressive neon-colored visual language to illustrator Nele Konopka - a comic for young people, adults and researchers, a comic as a testimony to the times, a comic that invites you to take part in the debate, to be curious and to engage with AI yourself. You can read the full press release on the official website of Schokoroboter and Deepfakes.
March 2023 - DIALOGUE - Lecture Chi Ziesmann on the topic "Overcoming borders with and in AI - China as a scientific cooperation partner from a cultural perspective"
On Thursday, March 2, 2023, the online lecture on "Overcoming borders with and in AI - China as a scientific cooperation partner from a cultural perspective" took place as part of the Pillars & Umbrellas event series.
The lecture was held by Chi Ziesmann, who works as a project coordinator in our office after completing his technical and intercultural studies. He spoke about the impact of technological advances on different levels of society in the People's Republic, including politics, ethics, gender equality and cultural diversity. He explained how to understand the Chinese mentality towards modernization and digitalization and how it differs from the European one.
This was followed by a lively discussion in which various topics were addressed. Dr. BirgitHäse, Director of the Center for East-Asia Studies at TU Dresden, took up the topic of data protection and national security in China and expressed her well-founded opinion on the subject. International cooperation with the People's Republic of China in the field of AI research is challenging, but there are also promising opportunities.
Dr. Jutta LuiseEckhardt, Head of the Office for the Protection of Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities at TUD Dresden University of Technology, hosted the successful virtual evening.
2022 - VISUAL TAKES - Cyborgs in the colors of the spectrum - The film series
In October/November and December 2022, one film was shown in each month at the "Kino im Kasten" in Dresden.
- Documentary film "The dilemma with social media"
The first evening takes a look at America, where social media platform operators are essentially driving the development and financing of AI. A feature-length documentary focuses on the potential risks of social media, particularly for our mental health. Media culture scholar André Wendler joins us for a discussion in the supporting program. - Documentary "Coded Bias" (with Josephine D'Ippolito)
The second documentary "CODED BIAS" (USA 2020) addresses the desire for inclusive facial recognition software through the fresh lens of a digital activist. Numerous examples are used to show how AI algorithms reproduce racist and gender-specific prejudices. One area of application is video surveillance, which is ubiquitous in China and is also used in Germany, for example at train stations, airports and border controls. The evening's speaker is Josephine D'Ippolito, who is concerned with the reflection of gender and AI in the medium of film. - Feature film "HER" (moderated by the project team)
The protagonist of the science fiction film drama shown in December writes empathetic letters for people who have difficulty revealing their feelings to their counterparts. What does a person need to develop feelings? After the break-up of his long-term relationship, he falls in love with the voice of his newly installed operating system, which is based on artificial intelligence. To what extent is such love possible?
All events take place as part of the CitizenScience.AI model project.
© Michael Kretschmar
Project Team CitizenScience.AI
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This project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free State of Saxony as part of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State governments.