Auflistung nach Autor:in "Savic, Selena"

Gerade angezeigt 1 - 20 von 33
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    Publikation
    05 - Forschungs- oder Arbeitsbericht
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    Architectonic Studies of Radio Signals: Reorganizing Archives of Data/Natures In Their Own Terms
    (18.08.2020) Savic, Selena
    As we slowly accustom to thinking about planetary issues through the notion of ‘assemblage’ rather than that of the ‘system’, we get better at acknowledging complex entanglements between living and inert, between social and technical. This paper presents a critical reflection on the use of machine learning techniques to support reasoning about natural phenomena. It engages data/natures by focusing on data radio signals: a phenomenon that pertains to both culture (telecommunications) and nature (atmospheric lightning discharges). Signal Identification Guide Wiki, a rich archive of signals observed and documented by a community of radio enthusiasts is the starting point of this study. In order to articulate alternative ways to study and engage with radio signals, I develop 'digital observatories': new methods for organizing and navigating abundant digital information based on critical use of self-organising map algorithm. I present a study of distribution patterns and clustering of signal qualities, when signals are reduced to spectrograms (visual representation of signal frequency composition). This 'digital observatory' aims to facilitate speculation on the connection between signal representation and technical communication protocols, by enabling the observer to identify criteria of similarity, and intervene in this organised space by adding new (real or imaginary) data. The project contributes to the fields of STS and experimental design research with an interest in the digital, unsettling the dichotomies previously described and providing avenues for recognition of the entangled nature of matter and information, of human and other-than-human, beyond simple ontological distinctions.
    06 - Präsentation
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    Articulating nomadic identities of radio signals
    (Revistes científiques de la Universitat de Barcelona, 25.02.2022) Savic, Selena [in: Matter: Journal of New Materialist Research]
    This article presents a new materialist approach to artificial neural networks, based on experimental research in categorization of data on radio signals. Picking up on Rossi Braidotti’s nomadic theory and a number of new materialist perspectives on informatics, the article presents identification of radio signals as a process of articulating identities with data: nomadic identities that are informed by all the others, always established anew. As a resistance to the dominant understanding of data as discreet, the experiments discussed here demonstrate a way to work with a digital archive in a materialist and non-essentialist way. The output of experiments, data observatories, shows the capacity of machine learning techniques to challenge fixed dichotomies, such as human/nature, and their role in the way we think of identities. A data observatory is a navigation apparatus which can be used to orient oneself in the vast landscape of data on radio transmissions based on computable similarity. Nomadic identities render materiality of radio signals as digital information.
    01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher Zeitschrift
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    Articulating Politics with Design and Technology: Public Space, Computation and Commoning
    (2020) Savic, Selena; Miyazaki, Shintaro
    If artefacts can have politics (Winner, 1980), and scientific hypotheses can be shaped by political forces (Prigogine and Stengers, 1984) where does this politics come from? Whether we are in autocratic politics or in horizontal decision making based on consensus, design and technology reproduce the principles of the socio-political systems in which they emerged. How does, in turn, design of space and technological artefacts shape the decision making processes in a community? While every kind of social order results in some form of hegemony, Chantal Mouffe (2005) reminds us, agonism reveals the very limit of any rational consensus. In this text, we contrast two extreme hegemonic positions: autocratic design of hostile architectures (unpleasant design) and the (quasi)participative data-driven city management (i.e. smart city); we then discuss an alternative to both, which is driven by a desire for self-organisation, independence and sustainability. In this scope, we discuss an ongoing research project that uses technological artefacts (computational modelling) to probe the agency of these tools in addressing complex topics related to decision making and self-organisation. Touching upon the different hegemonic positions as a starting points for articulating alternatives, we will discuss the connection between sustainable ways of living and technology developed with an emancipatory sensitivity. Working directly with three Swiss housing cooperatives, the research project poses the question of the measure and manner in which new technologies can be not only of use to community efforts but at the heart of their discussions and decision-making.
    06 - Präsentation
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    Artikulacija zajedničkog kroz dizajn in tehnologiju: javni prostor, tehnokratija i kompjuterski modeli za promisljanje zajedničkog
    (Institut za urbane politike, 2019) Savic, Selena; Čukić, Iva; Timotijević, Jovana; Radovanović, Ksenija [in: Ka drugačijem gradu]
    Design, participation and decision making intersect at different moments and in different models of political determination and decision making. From autocratic to horizontal decision making based on consensus, design and technology reproduce the principles of socio-political systems in which they emerge. How does, in turn, design of space and communication networks shape the decision making processes in a community? In the following text, I present three key positions of design practices that determine the potential and efficacy of participation. I will touch upon the role of architects and designers, as well as different approaches to complexity, which include the use of information and communication technologies. The later are often used as instruments to gather citizens opinions and foster participation. Strengthening participation challenges the centrality of designers and experts more generally in decision making process, while it also stresses the critical responsibility of all actors. On the other hand, the discretization of reality (automatic sampling of all sorts, from air quality to citizen's mood) inspires many technocratic propositions. What kinds of politics emerge from these practices?
    04A - Beitrag Sammelband
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    CAD optimism. How Architects Interested in Media and Computation Talk about Design
    (09.10.2021) Savic, Selena
    "Great new design" is a phrase that emerges from simple counting of words in social media discourse among architects and designers working with computation and interactive technologies. With an underlying concern for the narrative of optimism and efficiency that propagates in practice of working with CAD tools, I study the way Media Architecture is discussed within the community of architects, designers, researchers and policy makers. The bi-yearly event, Media Architecture Biennale, organised by the Media Architecture Institute gathers a large community of architects, designers and engineers interested in using and understanding computational tools in the context of design of media architecture (and media facades more specifically). I combine text-mining techniques of Twitter posts with practical knowledge of architectural profession and review of computational concepts in literature (Dalsgaard et al, Tomitsch et al, Brynskov et al but also Easterling, Bratton and Parisi). Using some of the digital humanities techniques, I identify a network of social media profiles that belong to architects, engineers, community managers and policy makers, with a mixed presence of practitioners and academics. I identify important concepts and patterns in this prolific communication stream, which I then critically examine through the way these conversations, literature and practice inform each other. I take social media as a rich, and digitally documented communication channel that relies on a multitude of media and forms. What can we infer from opinions on digital infrastructures, networked places and hybrid public spaces about their implications for practice of architecture, and methods architects use in design? Which occlusions and blind spots can be observed in the discourse? By looking at how contemporary practice is discussed, we can identify and offer a critical perspective on certain social and cultural aspects within the community.
    06 - Präsentation
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    Common Objects / Gewöhnliche Objekte
    (Museum für Kommunikation Berlin, 27.08.2022) Savic, Selena; Savicic, Gordan; Miyazaki, Shintaro; Schneider, Birgit; Silvestrin, Daniela [in: Forests of Antennas, Oceans of Waves]
    The present intervention is a temporary engagement with the exhibition Curious Communication. Unusual Objects and Stories from the Collection, which stages uncommon objects and rituals pertaining to telecommunication. We seek to complement this perspective with objects that are everyday, yet hidden in the heights of telecommunication masts and towers, such as 4G and 5G antennas, and satellite receptors. Proliferation naturalises them as mundane infrastructure, sometimes even mimicking nature. Antennas are objects that increasingly re-naturalise electromagnetism: engineered to facilitate communication between people, they put to use the disposition of metals to resonate with radio waves, picking up both human-made and natural emissions, and figuring in urban and rural landscapes to secure global interconnectivity.
    14 - Ausstellungsbeitrag
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    Publikation
    Delegating Management, Augmenting the Mind: What could be the role for technology in commoning practices?
    (University of Nicosia Research Foundation, 2020) Savic, Selena; Tselika, Evanthia; Sioki, Niki [in: free/libre Technologies, Arts and the Commons. An Unconference about Art, Design, Technology, Making, Cities and their Communities]
    In 1974, French feminist writer Françoise D' Eaubonne identified two threats to humanity: the destruction of the environment and overpopulation (d’Eaubonne, 1974). “Feminism or death”, she proclaimed alarmingly. The oil crisis of the 1970s heightened the awareness of the finiteness of resources (even though their scarcity was artificially generated in this particular case) and fuelled a plethora of thoughts about alternatives to the capitalist economic system that was perceived as consumptive of the very energy and human resources it attempted to manage. Even though such counterculture ideas did not gain mainstream recognition, and precisely because they failed to cause deeper changes to the system, similar claims are being made today. The Global Footprint Network estimates that the pace of using resources is alarmingly faster than their regeneration capacity1: in eight months we use twelve months worth of resources. Climate change activists as young as teenagers address political and business leaders at World Economic Forums2. Commons-based economy and commoning are proposed by many as more stable, resilient forms of governance (Bollier & Helfrich, 2015; Gibson-Graham, Cameron, & Healy, 2013). It is not a surprise that Elinor Ostrom was given Nobel Prize in Economics for her work on the on governing the commons (Ostrom, 1990) right after the biggest financial crisis we experience in recent times (2008). This discourse is often characterized by inflammatory statements. With the current text, I propose to think calmly about burning topics such as resource sharing, collective decision making and the role of technology in these processes. The relationship between commoning and technology is explored here in the scope of the research project Thinking Toys for Commoning3, looking into the ways media-based tools – such as computer-based models – can make complex commoning processes not only visible but also comprehensible. A multidisciplinary team gathers around questions raised by both lived experience of commoning in a community of individuals, and the experimental approach to computer modelling. We explore, expose and make explicit different phenomena related to common living. We collaborate with three Swiss housing cooperatives, probing organizational and communication challenges they face.
    04A - Beitrag Sammelband
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    Publikation
    Es wird ungemütlich. Unpleasant Design in der Stadt
    (Nicolai Verlag Berlin, 04/2021) Savic, Selena; Savicic, Gordan [in: Der Architekt]
    Unpleasant Design (unangenehmes Design) ist jede absichtlich eingesetzte Gestaltungsform und jeder Gegenstand oder Effekt, der die Nutzung von Gegenständen oder Räumen für eine bestimmte Gruppe von Menschen unmöglich oder schwierig macht. Am häufigsten begegnen wir dem Phänomen bei Stadtmöbeln, deren Gestaltung darauf abzielt, Obdachlose vom Schlafen im öffentlichen Raum abzuhalten: Dazu zählen mittig angebrachte Armlehnen auf Park- oder Bushaltestellenbänken sowie alle Arten von Spitzen und unregelmäßigen, oder auch rutschigen Oberflächen. Auch hochfrequente Geräusche, mit denen Jugendliche irritiert werden sollen, oder blaues Licht, das die Sichtbarkeit von Venen verringert und damit vom Gebrauch von Infektionsdrogen abhalten soll, sind Varianten der Unpleasant Design. Zudem manifestiert sich dieses auf vielen anderen Ebenen, von der Gestaltung von Schaufenstern über ganze Straßenzüge und Stadtteile bis hinein in den digitalen Bereich. Eines der Hauptmerkmale von Unpleasant Design liegt darin, dass es sich auf bestimmte soziale und demografische Bevölkerungsgruppen bezieht: Jugendliche, Drogenabhängige und Obdachlose sind häufig der offizielle Anlass für diese Form des Designs im öffentlichen Raum. Die Strategien treten oft an der Schnittstelle von öffentlichem und privatem Raum auf und ihr Wesen besteht darin, jede Art von Verhandlung zu unterbinden, indem sie gewünschtes Verhalten und die Nutzung des Raumes von vornherein vorschreiben. In den politischen Programmen der Regierungen würde es zwar niemals so formuliert werden: Dennoch ist Unpleasant Design im Grunde eine Top-down-Lösung, die impliziert, dass Bürgerbeteiligung bei der Gestaltung von öffentlich zugänglichen Räumen und Dienstleistungen keine Rolle spielt.
    01B - Beitrag in Magazin oder Zeitung
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    Feminist Hackerspace as a Place of Infrastructure Production
    (University of Oregon Libraries, 04/2018) Savic, Selena; Wuschitz, Stefanie [in: Ada (Eugene): a journal of gender, new media and technology]
    Work in a (feminist) hackerspace relies on the circulation of knowledge and availability of hardware. In contemporary maker scene, the majority of these resources is created in male-dominated circles and handed over to female identified makers to act upon and appropriate. Attempts to reconcile the disbalance in gender participation with pink-colored microcontrollers only reinforced existing gender and cultural stereotypes. Instead of adding to the growing voice of critique of exclusionist and inclusionist practices, we take a critical stand towards feminist hacking practice itself: we look at what is produced by feminist hackerspaces. Using standpoint theory to analyze the experience of working with one particular self-organized group of feminist artists and developers, this paper looks at practice in feminist hackerspaces as a way to create and share essential infrastructure with female or transgender identified makers. We analyze patterns of mutual self-help through sharing and learning, and their role in creating feminist infrastructure.
    01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher Zeitschrift
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    Making Arguments with Data
    (09.06.2022) Savic, Selena; Martins, Yann Patrick
    Whether we are discussing measures in order to ‘flatten the curve’ in the ongoing pandemic, or what to wear in face of the most recent weather forecast, we make arguments based on patterns and trends observed in data. What makes these patterns observable? Making arguments with data requires critical engagement with datasets, as well as computational processes to gather data, to organize and model their relationships. This article presents an approach to practicing ethics when working with large datasets and designing data representations. The arguments we make are based on the development and use of a computational instrument, and working with digital archives. We programmed and used web-based interfaces to sort, organize and explore a community-ran archive of radio signals. Inspired by feminist critique of technoscience and recent problematizations of digital literacy, we argue that one can navigate machine learning models in a multi-narrative manner, and that knowledge of radio signals or any other technical artefact transgresses domains. We propose visual explorations of complex data structures that enable storytelling and an understanding of datasets that resists extraction of discrete identities from the data. We hold that the main challenge to sovereignty comes from lingering forms of colonialism and extractive relationships that easily move in and out of the digital domain. Countering both the unbased narratives of techno-optimism, and the universalizing critique of technology, we discuss an approach to data and networks that enables a situated critique of datafication and correlationism from within.
    06 - Präsentation
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    Making Arguments with Data
    (Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute, 02/2023) Savic, Selena; Martins, Yann Patrick; Herlo. Bianca; Irrgang, Daniel [in: Proceedings of the Weizenbaum Conference 2022: Practicing Sovereignty - Interventions for Open Digital Futures]
    Whether we are discussing measures in order to "flatten the curve" in a pandemic or what to wear given the most recent weather forecast, we base arguments on patterns observed in data. This article presents an approach to practicing ethics when working with large datasets and designing data representations. We programmed and used web-based interfaces to sort, organize, and explore a community-run archive of radio signals. Inspired by feminist critique of technoscience and recent problematizations of digital literacy, we argue that one can navigate machine learning models in a multi-narrative manner. We hold that the main challenge to sovereignty comes from lingering forms of colonialism and extractive relationships that easily move in and out of the digital domain. Countering both narratives of techno-optimism and the universalizing critique of technology, we discuss an approach to data and networks that enables a situated critique of datafication and correlationism from within.
    04B - Beitrag Konferenzschrift
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    Publikation
    Making Arguments with Data: Resisting Appropriation and Assumption of Access / Reason in Machine Learning Training Processes
    (Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, 30.10.2023) Savic, Selena; Martins, Yann Patrick [in: Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society]
    This article presents an approach to practicing ethics when working with large datasets and designing data representations. Inspired by feminist critique of technoscience and recent problematizations of digital literacy, we argue that machine learning models can be navigated in a multi-narrative manner when access to training data is well articulated and understood. We programmed and used web-based interfaces to sort, organize, and explore a community-run digital archive of radio signals. An additional perspective on the question of working with datasets is offered from the experience of teaching image synthesis with freely accessible online tools. We hold that the main challenge to social transformations related to digital technologies comes from lingering forms of colonialism and extractive relationships that easily move in and out of the digital domain. To counter both the unfounded narratives of techno-optimismand the universalizing critique of technology, we discuss an approachto data and networks that enables a situated critique of datafication and correlationism from within.
    01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher Zeitschrift
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    Modulating Matters of Computation, Modelling and Hyper-Separations
    (BCS Learning and Development, 17.09.2021) Savic, Selena; Miyazaki, Shintaro; Christensen, Michelle; Conradi, Florian; Søndergaard, Morten; Beloff, Laura; Choubassi, Hassan [in: Proceedings of Polititcs of the machines - Rogue Research 2021, Berlin, Germany]
    We engage in a conversation with critical ecofeminism, which proposed to transform the colonialism-racism-capitalism-patriarchalism induced environmental crisis by non-essentialist countering of oppressions and hyper-separations produced by human/nature dualism. We modulate the critical ecofeminist approach by countering a similar dualism, namely that of nature/technology. Furthermore, our theoretical balance-act has a praxis-oriented side: we believe that computation can be included in ecofeminist action. By providing alternative forms of engagement to instrumentalization, we trace pathways to different futures, countering the binary narratives of technology but also its moralizing of socio-cultural mediation. We take an intersectional approach to outcomes of computational modelling (simulations, visualisations, forecasts) and discuss the ecofeminist method of synthesis as a way to include different perspectives into computational processes. We work with two ‘modulated models’ that pay attention to assumptions, observations and thinking about urban commoning initiatives, and amateur knowledge of radio telecommunications. We aspire to provoke discussions about different modes of inclusion in communities and archives that are centred on shared, environment-friendly, solidarity oriented life-style and mutual care. Our approach engages with feminist arguments and inquiries into ways patriarchalism is embedded in our relationship to technoscience and engineering. We explore modes of resistance by proposing skilled and alternative uses of these techniques.
    04B - Beitrag Konferenzschrift
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    Publikation
    Modulating Matters of Computation, Modelling and Hyper-Separations
    (15.09.2021) Savic, Selena; Miyazaki, Shintaro
    We engage in a conversation with critical ecofeminism, which proposes to transform the colonialism-racism-capitalism-patriarchalism induced environmental crisis by a non-essentialist countering of oppressions and hyper-separations produced by human/nature dualism. We modulate the critical ecofeminist approach by countering a similar dualism, namely that of nature/technology. Furthermore, our theoretical balance-act has a praxis-oriented side: we believe that computation can be included in ecofeminist action. By providing alternative forms of engagement to instrumentalization, we trace pathways to different futures, countering the binary narratives of technology but also its moralizing of socio-cultural mediation. We take an intersectional approach to outcomes of computational modelling (simulations, visualisations, forecasts) and discuss the ecofeminist method of synthesis as a way to include different perspectives into computational processes. We work with two ‘modulated models’ that pay attention to assumptions, observations and thinking about urban commoning initiatives, and amateur knowledge of radio telecommunications. We aspire to provoke discussions about different modes of inclusion in communities and archives that are centred on shared, environment-friendly, solidarity oriented life-style and mutual care. Our approach engages with feminist arguments and inquires into ways patriarchalism is embedded in our relationship to technoscience and engineering. We explore modes of resistance through proposing skilled and alternative uses of these techniques.
    06 - Präsentation
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    Publikation
    Modulating matters of computation, modelling and hyper-separations
    (Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC), 09/2021) Savic, Selena; Miyazaki, Shintaro; Christensen, Michelle; Conradi, Florian; Søndergaard, Morten; Beloff, Laura; Choubassi, Hassan; Elias, Joe; Hannah, Dehlia [in: Proceedings of Politics of the machines - Rogue Research 2021]
    We engage in a conversation with critical ecofeminism, which proposed to transform the colonialism-racism-capitalism-patriarchalism induced environmental crisis by non-essentialist countering of oppressions and hyper-separations produced by human/nature dualism. We modulate the critical ecofeminist approach by countering a similar dualism, namely that of nature/technology. Furthermore, our theoretical balance-act has a praxis-oriented side: we believe that computation can be included in ecofeminist action. By providing alternative forms of engagement to instrumentalization, we trace pathways to different futures, countering the binary narratives of technology but also its moralizing of socio-cultural mediation. We take an intersectional approach to outcomes of computational modelling (simulations, visualisations, forecasts) and discuss the ecofeminist method of synthesis as a way to include different perspectives into computational processes. We work with two ‘modulated models’ that pay attention to assumptions, observations and thinking about urban commoning initiatives, and amateur knowledge of radio telecommunications. We aspire to provoke discussions about different modes of inclusion in communities and archives that are centred on shared, environment-friendly, solidarity oriented life-style and mutual care. Our approach engages with feminist arguments and inquiries into ways patriarchalism is embedded in our relationship to technoscience and engineering. We explore modes of resistance by proposing skilled and alternative uses of these techniques.
    04B - Beitrag Konferenzschrift