Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures
Dauerhafte URI für die Sammlunghttps://irf.fhnw.ch/handle/11654/19
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Ergebnisse nach Hochschule und Institut
Publikation Modulating Matters of Computation, Modelling and Hyper-Separations(15.09.2021) Savic, Selena; Miyazaki, ShintaroWe 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 - PräsentationPublikation Articulating Politics with Design and Technology: Public Space, Computation and Commoning(2020) Savic, Selena; Miyazaki, ShintaroIf 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 - PräsentationPublikation Telling Stories on Commoning with Design of Models and Simulations(SUPSI, HSLU, swissdesignnetwork, 2021) Savic, Selena; Martins, Yann Patrick; Botta, Massimo; Junginger, SabineThis paper will present learnings from a 4-year SNSF-funded research project (2018- 2021), exploring commoning initiatives through regular exchange with three housing cooperatives from Switzerland. In close cooperation with them, we developed four agent- based models as visions for dividing up work needed to care for common spaces and resources in a sustainable way. We affirm computational modelling as a design praxis that can address commoning as a world-making activity, and explore mechanisms that would challenge or restore the stability of community life simulated in this way. Our models are not to be understood as prediction-oriented systems, but rather as a process of designing thinking tools, or toys by which we are creating ways of being. What kinds of controls can prevent extraction of resources from the community? What personal strategies bring more harmony to the group and how much does individual behaviour affect it? We address these questions and propose some preliminary conclusions about the entanglements of labour with value extraction in commoning activities that are best addressed through stories.04B - Beitrag KonferenzschriftPublikation Telling Stories on Commoning with Design of Models and Simulations(11.03.2021) Savic, SelenaThis talk focuses on commoning as practice, or rather the research project Thinking Toys for Commoning as a practice in understanding commoning, and its complicated relationship with technology. We explored this relationship through making of agent-based models, workshops on tech and commoning, and documenting the relationship between commoning, degrowth, technology, hegemony and making of (computational) toys. We focus on searching for a commoning way to think about technology and the digital in the context of housing cooperatives. I present here in detail two stories that we explore with the computational toys - agent-based models built from the information we gathered from workshops with the coopeartives. The stories are attuned at exploring the entanglements of labour with value extraction in commoning activities and demonstrating the power of convergence of actors around shared interests.06 - PräsentationPublikation Toys for conviviality. Situating ccommoning, computation and modelling(De Gruyter, 2020) Savic, Selena; Bedö, Viktor; Büsse, Michaela; Martins, Yann Patrick; Miyazaki, ShintaroThis article explores the use of agent-based modelling as a critical and playful form of engagement with cooperative housing organizations. Because of its inherent complexities vis-à-vis decision-making, commoning is a well-suited field of study to explore the potential of humanities-driven experimental design (media) research to provoke critical reflection, problem-finding and productive complication. By introducing two different agent-based models, the interdisciplinary research team discusses their experience with setting up parameters for modelling, their implications, and the possibilities and limits of employing modelling techniques as a basis for decision-making. While it shows that modelling can be helpful in detecting long-term results of decisions or testing out effects of unlikely yet challenging events, modelling might act as a discursive practice uncovering hidden assumptions inherent in the model setup and generating an increase of scientific uncertainty. The project “ThinkingToys for Commoning” thus argues for a critical modelling practice and culture, in which models act as toys for probing alternative modes of living together and explor- ing the constructedness of methods. In countering late forms of capitalism, the resulting situated and critical practice provides avenues for enabling more self-determined forms of governance.01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher ZeitschriftPublikation 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, NikiIn 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 SammelbandPublikation 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, KsenijaDesign, 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 SammelbandPublikation Thinking Toys for Commoning(Christoph Merian Verlag, 07/2020) Savic, SelenaDas vom SNF geförderte Forschungsprojekt ‹Denk-Spielzeug für Commoning› am Institut für Experimen- telle Design- und Medienkulturen (IXDM), HGK FHNW, thematisiert die Komplexität des nachhaltigen Lebens mit explorativen und spielerischen Ansätzen zur Computermodellierung. Wir arbeiten mit drei Schweizer Woh- nungsgenossenschaften zusammen, die Nachhaltigkeit, Selbstversorgung und Nicht-Wachstum fördern. Auf der Grundlage von Informationen, die Genos- senschaften bereitstellen, formulieren wir verschiedene Prinzipien in Bezug auf Zusammenarbeit und Entschei- dungsfindung und kodieren diese in agentenbasierte Modelle von Gemeinschaftssituationen. Wir verwenden das Modell und seine verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen, um mehr über zukünftige Verhaltensweisen und Verstrickungen in der Gemeinschaft zu erfahren. Wir entwerfen Modellschnittstellen als Denkspielzeug: Artefakte, die es Forschenden und Mitgliedern der Community ermöglichen, zukünftige Strategien zu erkennen. Mit den Denkspielzeugen untersuchen wir die Rolle von Artefakten bei der Schaffung von Wissen.04A - Beitrag SammelbandPublikation Ämtli Manager Report. Focus: observing the point where stress and amount of resting time curves invert(08.04.2019) Savic, Selena05 - Forschungs- oder Arbeitsbericht