Research Group KIM of HfG Karlsruhe at transmediale Festival 2019

KIM is pleased to announce its partnership with transmediale festival for a panel and workshop on algorithmic activism. On behalf of the department for Art Research and Media Philosophy of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design it thus aims to promote research and public discourse on current issues of data privacy, security and sovereignty.

More information: kim.hfg-karlsruhe.de

Panel: Affects Ex-Machina – Unboxing Social Data Algorithms

With: Ramon Amaro (Goldsmith University), Claudio Agosti and Nayantara Ranganathan (ALEX – Algorithm Exposed campaign), Caroline Sinders (machine learning designer and artist). Presented and moderated by: Ariana Dongus (KIM HfG Karlsruhe).

Conventional media have long filtered information and influenced public opinion. In the age of social media, this process has become algorithmic and targeted, separating the whole of society into thousands of small filter bubbles that construct collective orientations and pilot viral phenomena. This panel examines how machine learning and obscure algorithms analyze and manipulate individual affects into political sentiments, eventually amplifying class, gender, and racial bias. Is it possible to reverse engineer the expanding capturing of emotional data? Which forms of resistance are possible against social data algorithms? From upcoming European elections to data surveillance in India, the speakers will discuss and present new projects and strategies of algorithmic activism and data sovereignty.

Sun, 03.02.2019, 14:30 to 16:00
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Auditorium

Workshop: Bring Your Metadata: A Practical Analysis of the Facebook Algorithm

With: Claudio Agosti and Nayantara Ranganathan (ALEX – Algorithm Exposed campaign)

Metadata are data about data, secondary information about our data footprint that can be used to fully reconstruct individual profiles and collective behaviours. Even if they are anonymized, they remain the invisible and most important currency of the digital economy. What are the risks for individual privacy and what can be revealed by metadata analysis? In this workshop, metadata will be used not to study people, but to examine the logic and structure of algorithmic control. Facebook datasets and tracking techniques will be under scrutiny. By exploring and playing with this metadata, participants will understand the impact that algorithms have on individuals and society as a whole.

Fri, 01.02.2019, 11:00 to 14:00
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, K2