A Story of Surveillance? Past, Present, Prediction

SATS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Sille Obelitz Søe
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Prediction Modeling ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Algorithmic Construction

Abstract In this essay, I will explore the interrelations and differences between the human and digital technology through the lens of surveillance and prediction modeling: the building of profiles. I will provide some philosophical considerations on surveillance and surveillance practices especially in light of datafication and digitalization – including some epistemological considerations with regard to the underlying assumptions in algorithmic construction of profiles and human identities. The starting point is accidental encounters with the same person in the streets of Copenhagen.

scholarly journals Our Digital Mirror

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-94
Author(s):  
Erich Prem
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Starting Point

AbstractThe digital world has a strong tendency to let everything in its realm appear as resources. This includes digital public discourse and its main creators, humans. In the digital realm, humans constitute the economic end and at the same time provide the means to fulfill that end. A good example is the case of online public discourse. It exemplifies a range of challenges from user abuse to amassment of power, difficulties in regulation, and algorithmic decision-making. At its root lies the untamed perception of humans as economic and information resources. In this way, digital technology provides us with a mirror that shows a side of what we are as humans. It also provides a starting point to discuss such questions as who would we like to be – including digitally, which purpose should we pursue, and how can we live the digital good life?

Representing the City: Non-Representation, Digital Archives and Megacity Phenomena

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 227-238
Author(s):  
Simon Dawes
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Digital Archives ◽  
3D Mapping ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

Taking technological developments in urban mapping and the megacity phenomena of rapid change and sprawling space as its starting point, this essay provides a history of the present through a genealogy of maps of Montpellier in France, a rapidly growing modern city that provides examples from the earliest printed maps of the 16th century through to the most recent innovations in public-sponsored 3D mapping. By tracing the shifting correlations of narrative elements, it places in historical perspective the relationship between those concepts, such as verticality and horizontality, and perception and representation, which are problematized in the contemporary contexts of megacities and digital technology.

scholarly journals Fortællingens dynamiske arkiv : Fortælleformer og narrativt begær i SKAM

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Kristin Veel
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Archive ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Storage Distribution ◽  
Narrative Desire ◽  
Formal Techniques

With a starting point in the success that the netdrama series SKAM has had in engaging its audience in an almost addictive relation, this article examines how the series makes use of formal techniques such as repetition, intermissions and a minute-by-minute temporality to generate what may be considered a “narrative desire”, with a classic term borrowed from literary scholar Peter Brooks. I here argue that the mode of narration that arises from the amorphous, transmedial and fan-engaging universe that is SKAM, resonates with the characteristics of the dynamic, digital archive and the particular spatial and temporal configuration, which the possibilities of digital technology create for production, storage, distribution and consumption of text, sound and images.

Labour, Efficiency, Critique: writing the plantation into the technological present-future

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110654
Author(s):  
Stefan Ouma ◽  
Saumya Premchander
Keyword(s):  
Economic Geography ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Caribbean Studies ◽  
Global History ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Analytical Category ◽  
Geographical Scope

In this commentary, we call upon critical labour scholars, including labour geographers, to feature what sociologist Palmer called the ‘thrust of efficiency’ more centrally in their work. We put forth that the push for efficiency, as made possible by digital technology, needs to be analysed in terms of its historical lineage as well as in terms of its geographical scope. Centreing efficiency in critical labour studies, necessitates three scholarly moves. These are particularly relevant for labour geography, a field that has so far tended to circumvent questions of coloniality/labour, digital Taylorism, and the politics of (re-)writing economic geographies, in by-passing the literatures that deal with them. The plantation, an analytical category and ontic reality that stretches across several yet often unconnected bodies of literature – literary studies, Black Geographies, Caribbean studies, and the Black Radical Tradition, as well as in Global History – is central to our effort. Eventually, writing the plantation into the technological present-future can be the starting point for a larger and historico-geographically informed critique, in economic geography and beyond, of efficiency, a mode of thinking-cum-praxis based on input–output calculations, objectifying practices, violent value extraction and the removal of undesired ‘social frictions’ for the sake of capital accumulation.

What would we use and how would we use it? Can digital technology be used to both enhance and evaluate well-being outcomes with highly vulnerable and disadvantaged young people?

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 222-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhianon Vichta ◽  
Karleen Gwinner ◽  
Brian Collyer
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Youth Workers ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Over Time

An increasing number of technology apps for managing wellbeing and mental health are permeating young people’s use of digital spaces. There are a range of online wellbeing tools which have been developed to promote self-tracking and build young people’s wellbeing and mental health, for example, Optimism, My Mood Tracker and Strava. Tracking outcomes of support with highly transient young people is, more broadly, a particular challenge for youth workers, evaluators and social researchers. Using digital apps to promote as well as monitor wellbeing with tech-savvy young people is an enticing prospect for youth support services, particularly with young people whose engagement with support is sporadic and unpredictable during periods of homelessness or other crisis situations. The use of purpose-designed digital apps may have the potential to not only benefit young people’s mental health and wellbeing, but also enhance the consistency and quality of their connection with support services. In principle, putting wellbeing digital tools directly into the hands, and phones, of young people who are accessing support services seems to make good sense. A great number of online resources have, however, relatively limited uptake in highly vulnerable youth populations. The design starting point must therefore be, what would they use and how would they use it? How can digital apps help to promote stronger support engagement, be aligned with young people’s perspectives and priorities of wellbeing, and enable better outcomes evaluation? This article shares learnings from a consultation with more than 400 young youth service users to build better understanding of their relationships with digital technologies, what they would use and how they would use it to better connect with support as well as to promote and record changes in wellbeing over time. Exploring the young people’s perspectives on wellbeing, service delivery and use of digital technologies has broad implications for the integration of digital technology into both service delivery and evaluation of youth programmes. The findings suggest that digital platforms can play a role in evaluating youth wellbeing over time. The prerequisites, are however, that young people’s autonomy and individuality must be supported. We need to start from a place that facilitates agency and creativity, and focuses on capturing qualitative data that meet young people in their world – even when this is challenging for us.

Has Exploitation Transformed? A Critical Analysis of the Theory of Cognitive Capitalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-31
Author(s):  
Georgina Murray ◽  
David Peetz
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Employment Relationship ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
Finance Capital ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Second Category

Abstract In this article we critically analyze the theory of cognitive capitalism as developed by Yann Moulier Boutang in his book of that name. He emphasizes a new category of exploitation, seeks to explain the behavior of finance capital, and foretells a coming dominance by cognitive capitalism over industrial capitalism. While his theory has merit and is a useful starting point for further analysis of the interaction between digital technology and capitalism, it has major flaws in: its treatment of financialization, the employment relationship, and the power and dominance of large industrial corporations; its claims regarding the alleged superiority of cognitive capitalism; and its exposition of a second category of exploitation.

scholarly journals Remote Feelings: On Blind-Sighted Collaborations and Long-Distance Art Making

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Johnson ◽  
Florian Grond
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
3D Scanning ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Art Making ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Collaborative Art ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
Sensory Difference

This essay is an account of Remote Feelings, a collaborative art project conceived of by the authors in 2016. Shaped by sensory difference, remote location and the use of digital technology, namely 3D scanning and printing technology, this project, like this essay, explores haptic experience, the pairing of analogue and digital methods, and the work and influence of Austrian artist and innovator Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971). The essay also shares information on our individual artistic practices and preoccupations, including Florian Grond's use of digital information as a starting point for the exploration of sensory experience and David Johnson's use of his blindness to inform his search for a new aesthetics.

scholarly journals Exploration of a fragmented discourse. Privacy and data security in Süddeutsche Zeitung: 2007–2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Meissner ◽  
Gerret Von Nordheim
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Data Security ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Risk Culture ◽  
Mass Surveillance

<p>The goal of this exploratory case study is to identify different facets of news reporting on surveillance, privacy and data security, and more specifically, how risks in this context are portrayed. The theoretical foundation consists of two elements: 1) the concept of mediatized risk culture, and 2) the discursive arena model of risk communication, which provides the normative background for assessing news reporting. A text-mining approach (topic modeling) is applied to analyze relevant coverage of the German quality newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The study yields a total of seven topics which belong to three categories: violation of privacy norms, power and law enforcement, and datafication. The results show that despite the de-mystification of digital technology after the Snowden leaks, coverage has recently become more affirmative and less focused on risk. We conclude that this may indicate a normalization of mass surveillance and data harvesting even in Germany, a society which traditionally values privacy. In order to add more context to our findings, however, further qualitative analyses were needed. The paper serves as a starting point for further research on media reporting of surveillance, privacy and data security.</p>

Tactility, Traces and Codes: Reassessing timbre in electronic media

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Paiuk
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Electronic Devices ◽  
Electronic Media ◽  
Electronic Sound ◽  
Compositional Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Characteristic Modes ◽  
Sound Environment ◽  
Multiple Conditions

This article starts by arguing that in diverse approaches to electronically produced sound in music of recent times a shift in focus has occurred, from the creation of novel sounds to the manipulation of sound materials inherent in a culture of electric and electronic devices of sound production.Within these practices, the use of lo-fi devices, circuit-bending, cracked electronics and a resurfacing of older technologies is coupled with digital technology in a process which emphasises the devices characteristic modes of sound production and artefacts. Electronic sound becomes regarded as embedded on a reservoir of qualities, memories and registers of technologies that inhabit our sound environment.From this starting point our apprehension of technologically produced sound is reassessed, constituted as the crossing of particular conditions of production and reception, cultural traces and codes inherent in the practices and characteristics of media.This perspective lays the ground for a compositional approach that exposes and problematises the interaction of these multiple conditions.

scholarly journals Mathematical Representation Competency in Relation to Use of Digital Technology and Task Design—A Literature Review

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 444
Author(s):  
Mathilde Kjær Pedersen ◽  
Cecilie Carlsen Bach ◽  
Rikke Maagaard Gregersen ◽  
Ingi Heinesen Højsted ◽  
Uffe Thomas Jankvist
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Mathematical Representation ◽  
Mathematical Activity ◽  
Semiotic Representations ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Mathematics Teaching And Learning ◽  
And Task

Representations are crucial to mathematical activity, both for learners and skilled mathematicians. Digital technologies (DT) to support mathematical activity offer a plethora of new possibilities, not least in the context of mathematics education. This paper presents a literature review on representations and activation of students’ representation competency when using DT in mathematics teaching and learning situations. It does so with a starting point in task designs involving digital tools aiming to activate representation competency, drawing on the notion of Mathematical Digital Boundary Object (MDBO). The 30 studies included in the literature review are analyzed using Duval’s registers of semiotic representations and the representation competency from the Danish KOM framework. The results reveal a clear connection between the mathematical topics addressed and the types of representation utilized, and further indicate that certain aspects of the representation competency are outsourced when DT are used. To activate the representation competency in relation to the use of DT, we offer five suggestions for consideration when designing mathematical tasks. Finally, we raise the question of whether DT create new representations or merely new activities.

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