DATAUNION Seminar Series
Databases and Artificial Intelligences: a scholarly and artistic perspective
Seminar introduction and objective
We live in a world characterized by the multiplication of databases. The ambition to collect digital data, to make information systems interoperable and to deploy artificial intelligence seems everywhere. How can we – researchers, artists or professionals - make sense of these dynamics, and better understand how they affect our own practices, and the power relations we inhabit? This seminar aims to explore concepts and methods of research and visualization from academic and artistic perspectives. To foster the conversation, we invited Francis Hunger – an artist and researcher whose practice combines artistic research and media theory throughout his research into histories of technology as expressions of power constellations. Alongside the invited speaker, this seminar brings together artists and scholars from different backgrounds – Critical Security Studies, Media, Art, Photography, Architecture, Data Studies and Software Design.
In the spirit of the DATAUNION reading group and seminar series, attendants in this event are invited to actively participate in the exchanges. Time is foreseen in each session to facilitate the conversation beyond those presenting and discussing. Please register in advance by sending a message at DataUnion_ERC@vub.be.
The seminar is hosted by FARI Institute-AI for the common good, at Be Central, and it is co-organised by the DATAUNION project (funded by the European Research Council), the Privacy Salon and the COHUBICOL project (funded by the European Research Council). The seminar is organized by Rocco Bellanova and Megan Hadasa Leal Causton in the framework of the ERC Starting Grant DATAUNION, by Thierry Vandenbussche of the Privacy Salon, and Gianmarco Gori in the framework of the ERC Advanced Grant COHUBICOL. The seminar is funded by the European Union (ERC, DATAUNION, project number 101043213). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors (organisers, speakers or discussants) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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Seminar Program
Date: 6 June 2023
Venue: Be Central, FARI institute, Cantersteen 16, 1000 Brussels
10:00-10:30 | Welcome & introduction
Rocco Bellanova, LSTS/Vrije Universiteit Brussel [BE]
Tour-de-table. All participants are invited to share about their current research or artwork, and
their theoretical struggles or puzzles.
10:30-12:00 | From Harvesting Data to Unhyping Artificial 'Intelligence'
Francis Hunger will present his recent academic work and situate it in relation to those scholarly conversations that influenced it.1 After an initial 30 min. presentation, all participants are invited to intervene and exchange, in the spirit of the DATAUNION reading group.
• Francis Hunger, Hartware MedienKunstVerein [DE] |speaker Discussant: Gianmarco
Discussant: Alice?
12:00-13:00 | Lunch
13:00-14:00 | Artistic approaches to the social practices of data production Francis Hunger will walk us through his artistic practice.
• Francis Hunger, Hartware MedienKunstVerein [DE]
Discussant: Megan Hadasa Leal Causton, LSTS/Vrije Universiteit Brussel [BE]
14:00-15:00 | Roundtable
Sofie De Caigny, Flanders Architecture Institute [BE] (tbc)
Francesco Ragazzi, Leiden University (PI of the ERC project Security Vision) [NL]
Jan Kempenaers, [BE]
Moderator: Thierry Vandenbussche, Privacy Salon [BE]
17:00-17:10 | Closing remarks
• Rocco Bellanova, LSTS/Vrije Universiteit Brussel [BE]