
The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan
Hi everyone, my name is Mél Hogan and I’m a critical media studies scholar based in Canada. I’m working on a project called The Data Fix through a series of conversations with scholars, thinkers and feelers. Together we explore the significance of living in a world of data, and especially the growing trend of “digital humans” in the form of chatbots, holograms, deepfakes, ai images and videos, and even tech that revives the dead. The conversations are minimally edited, and serve as an archive of the collective thinking and feeling that is going into the Data Fix project. Please see thedatafix.net for more details and show notes. Thank you so much for listening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Latest episodes

Apr 30, 2023 • 44min
Nostalgia, with Grafton Tanner
What is nostalgia? A memory? A feeling? A weapon?? Tune in to my conversation with Grafton Tanner about the relationship between tech, nostalgia, retrobate and much more! Recorded Mar 31, 2023. Released April 30, 2023.Grafton Tannerhttps://graftontanner.com/ Yesterday Once Morehttps://reallifemag.com/yesterday-once-more/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 20, 2023 • 52min
Flesh, with Maya Indira Ganesh
Maya and I talk about [digital] flesh, [digital] intimacies, and how writing in and out of academic contexts helps us feel through our best ideas. We wonder what we owe the world in terms of representation and identity, and whether it’s okay to offer up an altered version of ourselves. Recorded Mar 30, 2023. Released April 20, 2023.Between Flesh: Tech Degrees of Separationhttps://13thgwangjubiennale.org/minds-rising/ganesh/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 10, 2023 • 49min
Unsafe, with Gina Neff
Gina and I talk about her recent article(s) on Wired.com that track violence against women and girls on the internet. We discuss how the internet should be regulated for safety, and question the limits of technological solutions. Recorded Feb 20, 2023. Released April 10, 2023.Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracyhttps://www.mctd.ac.uk/ The Internet Is at Risk of Driving Women Awayhttps://www.wired.com/story/online-harassment-women-internet/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 30, 2023 • 60min
Stale, with Zane Griffin Talley Cooper
Zane and I delve deep into the materialities of the virtual world, and try to imagine who the Metaverse (in all its possible iterations) is for — with some attention to our uncomfortable, sweaty bodies, fussing with headsets and sensory overload. We conclude that Big Tech’s visions of the future are a bit stale. Recorded Jan 20, 2023. Released March 30, 2023.The Metaversehttps://about.meta.com/what-is-the-metaverse/ Decenterlandhttps://decentraland.org/download/ Zane’s workhttps://www.zanegriffintalleycooper.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 snips
Mar 20, 2023 • 50min
Greener, with Sasha Luccioni
Sasha Luccioni explains LLM to be their parameters and why these matter when thinking about the social and environmental ramifications of AI. Recorded Feb 8, 2022. Released March 20, 2023.Publications (under “Alexandra Luccioni”)https://www.sashaluccioni.com/publications/ ICLR 2023 Workshop: Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning https://www.climatechange.ai/events/iclr2023 We’re getting a better idea of AI’s true carbon footprint by Melissa Heikkilä https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/14/1063192/were-getting-a-better-idea-of-ais-true-carbon-footprint Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 10, 2023 • 51min
Handled, with Hank Gerba
Hank Gerba was once one of Sophia The Robot’s handlers, and in this episode he reveals the magic (deception) behind social robots that promise to be one day autonomous. Recorded Jan 24, 2023. Released March 10, 2023. Sophiahttps://www.hansonrobotics.com/sophia/ The Most Realistic Humanoid Robots in The Worldhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjHNFP_773k&ab_channel=Motech Creators of famous Sophia robot reveal AI robotics for children, elderly | Nightlinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRHdnkUjcZg&ab_channel=ABCNews Sophia the Robot and Jimmy Sing a Duet of "Say Something"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-zyTlZQYpE&ab_channel=TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 1, 2023 • 48min
Promised, with Jake Pitre
Jake Pitre and I discuss the concept of the Metaverse and the future it wants. Recorded Jan 18, 2023. Released March 1, 2023. Who Wants the Metaverse?https://daily.jstor.org/who-wants-the-metaverse/ Awkward Meetingshttps://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1455624165201887234 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 20, 2023 • 46min
Fake, with Gabriele de Seta
Gabriele de Seta and I have a great conversation about deepfakes in a Chinese context. One of the big insights of this episode is that we may have to one day soon consider the agency of replicas in digital (human) form. Recorded Dec 15, 2022. Huanlian, or changing faces: Deepfakes on Chinese digital media platformshttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565211030185 危 特朗普与蓬佩奥向中国示爱的绝密视频流出 我爱你中国https://www.bilibili.com/video/av754473414/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 10, 2023 • 1h 6min
Soulless, with Eryk Salvaggio
Eryk Salvaggio and I discuss what GANs, stable diffusion and neural networks are, and we take listeners through the process of “reading” an AI image. Recorded Dec 13, 2022.How to Read an AI Image: The Datafication of a Kiss https://cyberneticforests.substack.com/p/how-to-read-an-ai-image This person does not existhttps://thispersondoesnotexist.com @Suhail They say it's "soulless" https://twitter.com/Suhail/status/1575527122449231872?s=20&t=NDTtKG0ET9c42oRmf3Q5-A Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 30, 2023 • 46min
Death, with Tamara Kneese
Tamara Kneese and I have a truly delightful conversation about death and the personal data that complicates estate planning and digital doubles. The main takeaway for me from this episode — and there were many — is that we scrutinize our (and others’) likeness in digital form in ways that we didn't have to with memorabilia in material form.Data Infrastructures of the Deadhttps://www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/data-infrastructures-of-the-dead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.