Data Meditations: new rituals for new possible worlds

Data Meditations: new rituals for new possible worlds
Name	Data Meditations: new rituals for new possible worlds
Location	Internet
Date	2020/07/20-2020/07/24
Time	16:00-19:00
PeopleOrganisations	Salvatore Iaconesi, Oriana Persico, Daniele Bucci
Type	HDSA2020
Web	Yes
Print	No

Why does data only have to be an extractive process?

What can we learn about ourselves through the data we generate everyday?

How can we use them to increase self-awareness, create new relations and gather around them to better observe ourselves and the environment? “Data Meditations: new rituals for new possible worlds” is a brand-new experiment in which you will take part of a data-ritual: a form of daily mediation through data.

"Walk a mile in someone else's shoes" they say: to better understand their lives, emotions and desires, how can we wear someone else's data? Or the data of our communities? This is the main question we aim to answer through Data Meditation.

Workshop is online, 20-25 July, 2020.

WHAT WE WILL DO TOGETHER During the workshop we will use simple tools to collect, represent and share data, experimenting new ways to address digital identities, represent ourselves, share data and gather around them creating meaningful relationships. We will find a way to use data as an expressive form to represent ourselves: data becomes existential, not a mere process of extraction. We will find innovative ways in which we can share data, or keep them to ourselves: what lies beyond privacy and control? Then we will try to discover new ways in which we can experience our data, or other people’s data, understanding ourselves and our differences better and in more meaningful ways.

Program in short:

• first day: 16-18:00 introduction (2 hours)
• second, third, fourth day: use a mobile app to collect data about yourself
  • daily ritual: data-meditation: 15 minutes per day 18:00
  • optional: experience sharing (30 minutes)
• fifth day: 18-20:00 assembly, feedback, next steps in data-ritual wdesign (2 hours)

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS:

• The experience is designed for a maximum of 12 participants.

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

• No technical skills are required.
• We will need, instead, your presence and attention: in taking part in the daily ritual and in collecting the data each day.
• Before you subscribe, be sure you are ok with that: it is important for your experience, individually, but also for the group, collectively.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Stereo headphones are required to experience the meditation
• [An example of stereo headphones jack is provided here: http://www.learningaboutelectronics.com/Articles/What-are-stereo-headphones, essentially it needs to have two (or more) connectors. of course bluetooth headphones will be fine as well as long as they are stereo]

READING LIST

• GhostWriter: the uncertain boundary of the “I” and the “self”
• P2P Ethnography
• Iperconnessioni Rurali

Coordinated by: Salvatore Iaconesi, Oriana Persico and Daniele Bucci with the support of Leonardo Gerritse

“Data Meditations: new rituals for new possible worlds” is a workshop experience by: HER: she Loves Data

Why this workshop is important for us

We run the HER:She Loves Data research center, and each of us also participates in separate activities, for example Art, Design, groups like Extinction Rebellion etc

We feel a specific connection to the themes and modalities of the workshop. With our research center we investigate the ways in which technologies enter and modify our intimate, psychological, relational, social, communicational and political spheres, and we bring this type of research into society through participatory efforts which we coordinate with civil society, organizations, institutions, in urban and rural locations. We use art and design as specific ways in which is it possible to “know”, ensuring accessibility, sensuality and a plurality of cultures and points of view that can be represented and that can “own”, “reappropriate” and “repurpose” our initiatives. We have a performative, social and inclusive approach to science.

Many of our projects are near-future investigations of this kind: https://www.artisopensource.net/projects-2/