Data and data-driven services are often touted as the solution to many of our problems. But what are the darker sides of these magical solutions? How can we gain – or regain – autonomy and agency over our systems?
OPENING FILM: Kitty AI (2016) 12 min, Pinar Yoldas (TR)
MODERATOR: Natalie Kane (GB)
PANEL: Wesley Goatley (GB), Lydia Nicholas (GB) and Julian Oliver (NZ)
Lydia Nicholas is an anthropologist who works in places where data, identities, bodies and biotechnologies meet, focusing on futures and networks, often using speculative fiction as a research and communication tool. In recent years she has used speculative fiction to explore information flow through interdisciplinary synthetic biology projects, researched antibiotic resistance for the Longitude Prize and edited a science fiction collection to spread awareness. Her research into lay understandings of big data took her to the UK Cabinet Office and the Science Museum. She currently works as a Senior Researcher in Collective Intelligence at Nesta, exploring how people use new digital platforms to collaborate and the ethics and regulation of using machine learning systems in government decisions.
Julian Oliver is a New Zealander, Critical Engineer and artist based in Berlin. His work and lectures have been presented at many museums, galleries, international electronic-art events and conferences, including the Tate Modern, Transmediale, the Chaos Computer Congress, Ars Electronica, FILE and the Japan Media Arts Festival. Julian has received several awards, most notably the distinguished Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica 2011 for the project Newstweek (with Daniil Vasiliev).
Wesley Goatley is a sound artist and PhD researcher in critical data aesthetics at University of Sussex. His artistic practice examines opaque power and hidden processes in technology and data through installations, software, and talks. Recent commissions include Ground Resistance with technology anthropologist Georgina Voss for the Milton Keynes International Festival, in partnership with the Open University. His solo and collaborative work has also been exhibited at Furtherfield Gallery (UK), ARTEFACT Festival (Leuven, BEL) and Brighton Digital Festival.
Pinar Yoldas is an infradisciplinary designer/artist/researcher currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work develops within biological sciences and digital technologies through architectural installations, kinetic sculpture, sound, video and drawing with a focus on post-humanism, eco-nihilism, anthropocene and feminist technoscience. Her solo shows include The Warm, the Cool and the Cat at Roda Sten Konsthall (2016), Polyteknikum Museum Moscow (2015),An Ecosystem of Excess, Ernst Schering Project Space among many. Her group shows include ThingWorld, NAMOC National Art Museum of Beijing (2014); Transmediale Festival, Berlin (2014), ExoEvolution at ZKM (2015),14th Istanbul Biennial (2015) ,Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts(2016).
Natalie Kane is Curator of Digital Design at the V&A and one half of the curatorial research project Haunted Machines. She was curator of the British pavilion for the 2019 Milan Triennale and curated Amnesty International's exhibition 'War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality' at the Architectural Association. She is a Visiting Practitioner at the London College of Communication, and an Advisory Board Member for the Society of Computers and Law. In 2019, she received an Art Fund New Collecting Award to collect digital design for the V&A.