Day 2

Sascha Friesike (Weizenbaum Institute)

“At The End of the World, Plant A Tree”  

If the hellish events of the past two years have left you feeling like the first stirrings of apocalypse are at long last come upon us, you clearly aren’t alone. But just what do we do with ourselves, here at the end of all things? What happens to us — psychically, emotionally, socially, politically — when we accept and internalize that events capable of ending human civilization as we’ve known it have already taken place, and that all we’re doing now is waiting for them to unfold in their fullest consequence?
We’ll be touring some of the most common responses to this understanding — including the turn toward reactionary blood-and-soil nativism, the false comfort of left accelerationism, and the newly hegemonic rhetoric of “resilience” — before exploring what qualities might actually serve us best, as individuals and collectivities, as the epoch on which we’ve predicated our entire sense of being draws to its inevitable close.
By developing the notion that there are capacities to which we have permanent recourse, no matter what else happens, this conversation will hopefully leave you feeling able to face the gathering darkness with grace and equanimity. And, hey, if the apocalypse fails to arrive on time, at least you’ll have a bunch of clever new things to say at parties.

Track 3 “Digital sovereignty and scientific autonomy”
Panel 1 “Reclaiming scientific autonomy”

Track Chairs: Sascha Friesike and Maximilian Heimstädt

  • Renke Siems: “»Stop tracking science!« Project presentation about a model case of threat to scientific autonomy” Abstract
  • Raffaela Kunz: “Open Science – What role for academic freedom in securing reclaiming digital sovereignty and scientific autonomy?” Abstract
  • Marcel Wrzesinski: “Community-owned and community-paid. Resilient funding and workflows for independent academic publishing”  Abstract

“The wet centre: contesting value through artistic practice with the Department of Ultimology”

This workshop presents the work of the Department of Ultimology, an ongoing artistic project that has been situated in residence at the CONNECT Research Centre for Future Networks, Trinity College Dublin.

Within the contexts of technology research and development, there has been a marked interest in the incorporation of artistic and creative practices, which is driven, in part, by the increasing urgency of issues such as algorithmic bias, data privacy, disinformation as well as larger movements towards addressing the wider ethical, socio-political and environmental implications of the digital transformation. How can the participation of artists in research and industry domains challenge the multifaceted problems of contemporary technologies and contribute to alternative technological futures?
This workshop is led by the Department of Ultimology, an artistic project that seeks to establish the study of endings as a real and urgent concern, looking closely at entities that are at risk. Engaging with questions of disputed values, workshop participants will be invited to work with and learn from turf, a material composed of deposited wetland vegetation, which when extracted from bog environments in Ireland, dried and compressed, can act as a fuel source. Turf is an entity at the intersection of conversations around environmental concerns, climate justice, value, tradition, natural capital and energy usage in an Irish context where technology and data centres make rapidly increasing demands on the national grid. Turf is offered here as an Ultimological material; its sale and distribution will likely be made illegal this year. The workshop will comprise a talk and participatory activity where participants are invited to encounter turf, to handle and transform it, while discussing its value as a contested and vulnerable material.
This workshop is organised as part of the EU Horizon 2020 project Artsformation. Artsformation explores the intersection between arts, society and technology and aims to understand and promote the ways in which art and artists can play a role in making digital technologies more open, fair, and inclusive.

Fiona McDermott and Harun Siljak

 in cooperation with the “Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung)”

“Digital rights-based policy making – building a framework that works for us all” with “Cities Coalition for Digital Rights”

with Anna-Sophie Novak (Graz), Elizabeth Calderón Lüning (Berlin), Florian Hoof (Frankfurt), Meireyi Saierjiang (Munich), Milou Jansen (Amsterdam)

 in cooperation with the “Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung)”

Track 3 “Digital sovereignty and scientific autonomy”
Panel 2 “Reorganizing tools and infrastructures for scientific work”

Track Chairs: Sascha Friesike and Maximilian Heimstädt

  • Maximilian Voigt and Daniel Wessolek: “Open hardware, public interest tech, and scientific autonomy” Abstract
  • Anna-Lena Lorenz: “Digitalize knowledge, not documents – The Open Research knowledge graph” Abstract
  • Mareike Bauer, Maximilian Heimstädt, Carlos Franzreb and Sonja Schimmler: “Clickbait or conspiracy? How Twitter users address the epistemic uncertainty of a controversial preprint” Abstract
  • Anne K. Krüger and Sabrina Petersohn: “From citation indices to linked data – The development of bibliometric infrastructure in academic performance measurement” Abstract

Track 4 “Datafication and democracy”

Track Chairs: Daniel Irrgang und Paola Pierri

  • Silvia Masiero, Stefania Milan and Emiliano Treré: “COVID-19 from the Margins: Narrating the COVID-19 pandemic through decoloniality and multilingualism” Abstract
  • Christel De Maeyer and Minha Lee: “Digital twins in healthcare for citizens” Abstract
  • Milan Tahraoui, Christian Krätzer and Jana Dittmann: “Risks and opportunities of an AI-based detector for deepfakesbased disinformation activities targeting democratic political processes” Abstract
  • Jörg Lehmann: “Digital commons as a model for digital sovereignty: The case of cultural heritage” Abstract
  • Gemma Copeland and Alex Worrad-Andrews: “Building digital sovereignty using common tools” Abstract

“Informed citizens and digital public authorities: A conversation about practices of sovereignty vis à vis public institutions”

The discussion explores a diversity of concepts and strategies to understand current negotiations around public data use and practices of sovereignty from the perspective of legal, political and media sciences, philosophy, design, history and STS. We aim to reflect changes in the relationship between citizens, administration and politics. What does it mean to be a sovereign and informed citizen? How transparent should the public administration be with regard to internal processes to the outside world? Is there such a thing as too much transparency and which are the areas of citizens’ legitimate interest? What is the role of cities? 

With Anna-Sophie Novak (Graz), Elizabeth Calderón Lüning (Berlin), Florian Hoof (Frankfurt), Merey Serjan (Munich), Milou Jansen (Amsterdam)

Christian Herzog, Robin Preiß and Daniela Zetti

 in cooperation with the “Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung)”

Track 2 “Digital literacy and inequalities”
Panel 2 “Critical engagement and informal knowledge”

Track Chairs: Bianca Herlo and Stefan Ullrich

  • Selena Savic and Yann Patrick Martins: “Making arguments with data” Abstract
  • Friederike Fröbel, Carina Lange and Gesche Joost: “Minodu – Fostering Local Sustainable Development Through Technology and Research” Abstract
  • Jana Heinz: “Opening schools to students’ informal digital knowledge to enabling the emancipatory employment of digital media” Abstract

 “Data Souvereignty”

Historically neglected, peripheral populations have experienced digital exclusion and new forms of coloniality where data is at the center. It is time to recognize that civil society has a key role in developing policies for data production and access. In this talk we will learn about diversity and social action for the sovereignty of marginalized populations and for the guarantee of civil rights from Brazilian and Latin American experiences.

in cooperation with re:publica 2022