Data & Society

This recording is a Q&A with André Brock following his presentation of Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures.In Distributed Blackness, Brock asks where Blackness manifests in the ideology of Western technoculture. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis (Brock, 2018), Afro-optimism, and libidinal economic theory, this talk employs Black Twitter as an exemplar of Black cyberculture: digital practice and artifacts informed by a Black aesthetic.Technoculture is the American mythos (Dinerstein, 2006) and ideology; a belief system powering the coercive, political, and carceral relations between culture and technology. Once enslaved, historically disenfranchised, never deemed literate, Blackness is understood as the object of Western technical and civilizational practices. This critical intervention for internet research and science and technology studies (STS) reorients Western technoculture’s practices of “race-as- technology” (Chun 2009) to visualize Blackness as technological subjects rather than as “things.” Hence, Black technoculture.

In Distributed Blackness, André Brock asks where Blackness manifests in the ideology of Western technoculture. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis (Brock, 2018), Afro-optimism, and libidinal economic theory, this talk employs Black Twitter as an exemplar of Black cyberculture: digital practice and artifacts informed by a Black aesthetic.Technoculture is the American mythos (Dinerstein, 2006) and ideology; a belief system powering the coercive, political, and carceral relations between culture and technology. Once enslaved, historically disenfranchised, never deemed literate, Blackness is understood as the object of Western technical and civilizational practices. This critical intervention for internet research and science and technology studies (STS) reorients Western technoculture’s practices of “race-as- technology” (Chun 2009) to visualize Blackness as technological subjects rather than as “things.” Hence, Black technoculture.

How can feminist thinking be operationalized into more ethical and equitable data practices? As data are increasingly mobilized in the service of governments and corporations, their unequal conditions of production, asymmetrical methods of application, and unequal effects on both individuals and groups have become increasingly difficult for data scientists—and others who rely on data in their work—to ignore. But it is precisely this power that makes it worth asking: “Data science by whom? Data science for whom? Data science, with whose interests in mind?” These are some questions that emerge from what we call data feminism; a way of thinking about data science and its communication that is informed by the past several decades of intersectional feminist activism and critical thought. This talk draws on insights from the authors' collaboratively crafted book about how challenges to the male/female binary can challenge other hierarchical (and empirically wrong) classification systems; how an understanding of emotion can expand our ideas about effective data visualization; and how the concept of “invisible labor” can expose the significant human efforts required by our automated systems. About the Speakers Catherine D’Ignazio (she/her) is a hacker mama, scholar, and artist/designer who focuses on feminist technology, data literacy and civic engagement. She has run women’s health hackathons, designed global news recommendation systems, created talking and tweeting water quality sculptures, and led walking data visualizations to envision the future of sea level rise. Her book from MIT Press, Data Feminism, co-authored with Lauren Klein, charts a course for more ethical and empowering data science practices. D’Ignazio is an assistant professor of Urban Science and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT where she is the Director of the Data + Feminism Lab. More information about Catherine can be found on her website at www.kanarinka.com. Lauren F. Klein (she/her) is a scholar and teacher whose work crosses the fields of data science, digital humanities, and early American literature. She has designed platforms for exploring the contents of historical newspapers, recreated forgotten visualization schemes with fabric and addressable LEDs, and, with her students, cooked meals from early American recipes—and then visualized the results. In 2017, she was named one of the “rising stars in digital humanities” by Inside Higher Ed. She is the author of An Archive of Taste: Race and Eating in the Early United States (University of Minnesota Press, 2020) and, with Catherine D’Ignazio, Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020). With Matthew K. Gold, she edits Debates in the Digital Humanities, a hybrid print-digital publication stream that explores debates in the field as they emerge. Klein is an Associate Professor of English and Quantitative Theory & Methods at Emory University, where she also directs the Digital Humanities Lab. More information can be found on her website: lklein.com. About Databites Data & Society’s “Databites” speaker series presents timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology, bridging our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation.  

Data & Society kicks off our online Databites series with Sasha Costanza-Chock, whose new book, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, re-imagines how design led by marginalized communities can become a tool to help dismantle structural inequality, advance collective liberation, and support ecological survival.In this conversation with Data & Society’s Events Producer Rigoberto Lara Guzmán, Sasha shares her experience as a design researcher and a practitioner, highlights helpful Design Justice Network best practices, and explores how we might apply the principles of design justice to COVID-19 responses.This talk was recorded on Wednesday, April 29, 2020. About the Speaker and HostSasha Costanza-Chock (pronouns: they/them or she/her) is a scholar, designer, and media-maker, and currently Associate Professor of Civic Media at MIT. They are a Faculty Associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Faculty Affiliate with the MIT Open Documentary Lab, and creator of the MIT Codesign Studio(codesign.mit.edu). Their work focuses on social movements, transformative media organizing, and design justice. Sasha’s new book, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need was published by MIT Press in March 2020. Sasha is a board member of Allied Media Projects and a Steering Committee member of the Design Justice Network.Rigoberto Lara Guzmán (pronouns: they/them or he/him) is a xicanx producer, artist, and community technologist. His work attends to the interaction of humans, objects, and the lived environment to explore coded knowledge systems and emergent ecologies. He designs experiences that facilitate situated learning and is currently unsettling socio-technical worlds at Data & Society.About DatabitesData & Society’s “Databites” speaker series presents timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology, bridging our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation

In this virtual conversation, Blind Accessibility Advocate Chancey Fleet and Artist Taeyoon Choi teach us about network building and activism opportunities. Now that we're more online, how can we seize this moment to build more inclusive, accessible communication and modes of connection? What tools and best practices can we activate in the current moment, and continue to prioritize in our programming moving forward? This talk was recorded on April 15. About the SpeakersChancey Fleet is a Brooklyn-based accessibility advocate, coordinates technology education programs at the New York Public Library’s Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library. Chancey was recognized as a 2017 Library Journal Mover and Shaker. She writes and presents to disability rights groups, policy-makers, and professionals about the intersections of disability and technology. During her fellowship, she plans to advance public understanding of and explore best practices for visual interpreter services as well as other technologies for accessibility whose implications resonate with the broader global conversations about digital equity, data ethics, and privacy. She proudly serves as the Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind of New York.Taeyoon Choi is an artist, educator, and activist based in New York and Seoul. His art practice involves performance, electronics, drawings, and installations that form the basis for storytelling in public spaces. He co-founded the School for Poetic Computation where he continues to organize sessions and teach classes.ResourcesRooted in RightsGuide: Hosting Accessible Online MeetingsWeb Content Accessibility GuidelinesBlind Inclusivity ResourcesHow to Build a Phone TreeGiving Voice by Meryl AlperY Combinator: I’m a Software Engineer Going Blind -- How Should I Prepare?Consentful Tech ProjectNYC Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup GroupCOVID-19 is reshaping the future of work for people with disabilities by Shane KanadyTaeyoon's recommendations:Staying with the Trouble by Donna HarawayYou Can Learn Something From The People Of Wuhan by Tricia WangResisting the Racist Game on ArtAsiaPacific"How to Deal with Racism" by Taeyoon Choi on I WeighEarth, "Saewol, COVID-19 and the lack of mourning" 세월호와 코로나19, 애도의 부재Chancey's recommendations:Her Twitter thread on alt-textCrip Camp on Netflix

Big Data is more than a collection of technologies or a revolution in measurement and prediction. It has become a philosophy; an ideological regime that determines how decisions are made, and who makes them. It gives legitimacy to a new form of social and political control that takes the digital traces of our existence and then finds ways to use them to sort and manage populations. Big Data is part of a long and pervasive historical legacy of scientific oppression, aggressive public policy, and the most influential political and economic institution that has shaped and continues to shape this country’s economy: chattel slavery. Algorithms and other data technologies are the engines that facilitate the ongoing evolution of chattel slavery into the Prison Industrial Complex, justify the militarization of schoolyards and borders alike, and continued the expansion of contemporary practices of peonage.About the SpeakerYeshimabeit Milner is the founder & executive director of Data for Black Lives. She has worked since she was 17 behind the scenes as a movement builder, technologist, and data scientist on a number of campaigns. She started Data for Black Lives because for too long she straddled the worlds of data and organizing and was determined to break down the silos to harness the power of data to make change in the lives of Black people. In two years, Data for Black Lives has raised over $2 million, hosted two sold out conferences at the MIT Media Lab and has changed the conversation around big data and technology across the U.S. and globally.As the founder of Data for Black Lives, her work has received much acclaim. Yeshimabeit is an Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow, and joins the founders of Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street in the distinguished inaugural class of Roddenberry Foundation Fellows and most recently, was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30.

Data & Society welcomes writer Anna Wiener to discuss her debut book, Uncanny Valley, and experiences navigating the new digital economy.Part coming-of-age-story, part portrait of an already-bygone era, Anna Wiener’s memoir of working in Silicon Valley is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup culture at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild fortune, and accelerating political power. Anna deftly charts the tech industry’s shift from self-appointed world savior to democracy-endangering liability, alongside a personal narrative of aspiration, ambivalence, and disillusionment.Unsparing and incisive, Uncanny Valley is a cautionary tale, and a revelatory interrogation of a world reckoning with consequences its unwitting designers are only beginning to understand.This event is moderated by Data & Society’s Director of Creative Strategy, Sam Hinds. It was recorded at Data & Society on January 22, 2020.  

Data are currency. Data provide the fuel for decision-making and profit-making. Data offer evidence for enhancing health services, infrastructure, and zoning, and for addressing environmental concerns. But the collection and use of data is spurring conflicts between cities, corporate and civil society organizations, and constituents. These conflicts occur on the grounds of data ownership, access, privacy, and security.Dr. McNealy traces these conflicts to our perception of data as a singular piece of property. A better metaphor for data, she contends, would be that of a networked representation or observation in an ecosystem. Dr. McNealy argues that we require an ecological approach for understanding this era of emergent technology and data — both for creating adequate policy, and for protecting the vulnerable.This event is moderated by Data & Society Director of Research Sareeta Amrute.For more information about this talk and future events, visit datasociety.net.This talk was recorded on January 8, 2020. 

Our planet is warming, our seas are rising, and while the human cost of this will be massive, the human cause of it is undeniable. Or at least, it should be. Rising sea levels and the desertification of already dry areas could see millions across our world being displaced. The climate crisis is a massive threat to quality of life, but for some people, it’s also an opportunity. Across Europe, the 2015 migrant crisis destabilized civil society, leading to the rise of the AfD in Germany, the Lega party in Italy, and allowed Viktor Orban to whip up anti-migrant rhetoric in Hungary. These conditions are a petri dish for conspiracy theorists, politicians, corporate interests, and especially, a boon for the rhetoric of extreme anti-migration factions pushing online disinformation.This event is moderated by Data & Society founder danah boyd.Recorded on December 4, 2019.About the SpeakerDr. Joe Mulhall is Senior Researcher at HOPE not hate, the UK’s largest anti-fascism and anti-racism organisation. He is a historian of postwar and contemporary fascism and completed his PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London. He sits on the Board of the UK Government funded Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. He has published extensively, both academically and journalistically, and appears regularly in the international news media and gives talks around the world about his research. He has two forthcoming academic books with Routledge in 2020 including The Alt-Right: Fascism for the 21st Century.For more information, visit datasociety.net.

Charlton McIlwain, author of "Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter," shares African Americans’ role in the internet’s creation and evolution, illuminating both the limits and possibilities for using digital technology to push for racial justice in the United States and across the globe. McIlwain's book shows that the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and varied than most people know. In fact, it spans nearly five decades and involves a varied group of engineers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, journalists, and activists. But this is a history that is virtually unknown, even in our current age of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Black Lives Matter. From the 1960s to present, the book examines how computing technology has been used to neutralize the threat that black people pose to the existing racial order, but also how black people seized these new computing tools to build community, wealth, and wage a war for racial justice. This event was hosted by Data & Society Faculty Fellow Anita Say Chan. Charlton McIlwain is Vice Provost of Faculty Engagement & Development at New York University, and Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU’s Steinhardt School. Dr. McIlwain’s scholarly work focuses on the intersections of race, digital media, and racial justice activism. He is also the Founder of the Center for Critical Race & Digital Studies, and in addition to "Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, From the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter" (Oxford University Press), he is the co-author of the award-winning book, "Race Appeal: How Political Candidates Invoke Race In U.S. Political Campaigns."