MATERIALITY MATTERS: STRUGGLES WITH
digital technology and the (em)body/i(ed)
| NSCAD
On March 6, NSCAD faculty and graduate students talked about what it means—or could mean—to take up new understandings of materiality and the new explorations of methods that these require. In this seminar, we asked the question: what is materiality in the digital era? Today, terms such as artifact, object, sculpture, clothing, found material and monument are newly brought into question. The roundtable featured: Bruce Barber, David Clark, Gary Markle, Kim Morgan, and NSCAD graduate students.
Data center | UCLA
On February 23rd, as part of the special issues seminar “Trump, Clinton, and Role of (Dis)Information in Politics” in the Information Studies department at UCLA, Dr. Mél Hogan gave a talk about her work on data centers. Hogan’s presentation, entitled Data: Center to Surplus to Complex, presented a materialized perspective on the often immaterial discourses that surround data and provided information about the environmental impact and social repercussions of the physical organization of data storage. Hogan’s enlightening talk introduced a new sense of place and an environmental consciousness to our imagination of digital networks.
walking matters: a peripatetic
experience of the halifax
explosion | NSCAD Art Bar
On Friday, February 17th, The Fourchettes and members of the Narratives in Space + Time Society hosted a roundtable to discuss NiS+TS' current overarching project, “Walking the Debris Field: Public Geographies of the Halifax Explosion.” The project is creating content for two exhibitions and an array of walking-based activities for the Explosion’s centenary in 2017. During this roundtable, members of NiS+TS and some of their collaborators talk about what it means—or could mean—to employ and deploy co-creation, digital technology, commissioning and making as a shared methodology.
Featuring: Robert Bean (NSCAD University), Renée Gruszecki (historian), Brian Lilley (Dalhousie School of Architecture), Barbara Lounder (NSCAD University), Mary Elizabeth Luka (York University) from NiS+TS, and collaborators Peter Dykhuis (Director/Curator, Dalhousie Art Gallery); Angela Henderson (artist & educator); James Forren (Dalhousie School of Architecture); Catherine Martin (Mount Saint Vincent University Nancy’s Chair & filmmaker); Derek Reilly (Dalhousie University Faculty of Computer Science); Ren Thomas (Dalhousie School of Planning); and several students involved in the project.
RESEARCH-CREATION AND PUBLIC
INTERVENTION: CRITICAL METHODS FOR
ENGAGING PEOPLE | RYERSON UNIVERSITY
On Wednesday, February 13th, The Fourchettes and Advanced Methods Course (CMCT7200 {York} and CC9900 {Ryerson}) hosted a public seminar focused on understanding critical methods in cultural engagements with narrowcast audiences and targeted communities. The seminar was supported by The Ryerson-York Communication Program and was funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant.
DATA QUE/E/RIES | MCMASTER U
On Friday, February 3rd 2017, we focused on putting forward provocations for ways of thinking about ‘big data’. In particular, we turned to queer perspectives to help us address and unravel some of the assumptions, biases, and limitations of a big data paradigm, and ultimately, envision relations outside of its governing logic. This seminar was organized as part of CSMM 708: Technocultural Politics and Practices of Big Data, and the Critical Methods in Technoculture Series, in collaboration with the Lewis & Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship.
“The Politics of Process” | U of C
On Friday, January 27th 2017, The Fourchettes discussed the impact of ethnographic work on themselves, on the subjects of their research, and on the audiences for whom they write. This session was part of Connections: The CMF Speaker Series, a monthly speaker series hosted by the Department of Communication, Media and Film at the University of Calgary.
CRITICAL KARAOKE: SEMINAR AND WORKSHOP
The original idea for Critical Karaoke is Dr. Joshua Clover's (UC Davis) and has since been modified for conferences related to media and communication studies and critical cultural studies. The speakers were Dr. Rena Bivens, Dr. Merlyna Lim, and Dr. Ummni Khan from Carleton University, and Dr. Lisa Henderson, University of Massachusetts Amherst. This event was part of the Critical Methods in Technoculture seminar series hosted by The Fourchettes, a SSHRC-funded research team (thefourchettes.net).
DATA AND POWER ISSUES | uqam
On Wednesday, November 23rd 2016, The Fourchettes in collaboration with LabCMO and the Chaire de recherche UQAM sur les usages des technologies numériques et les mutations de la communication, hosted a lunch seminar that deepened our understandings of the sociopolitical implications of online trace data.
FEMINIST DIGITAL RESEARCH METHODS
On Friday, October 14th 2016, a roundtable discussion was led by Alison Harvey and Mary Elizabeth Luka, sponsored by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Connections. Hosted by the Department of Media and Communication’s Gender Research Group in the Bankfield House Lecture Theatre at the University of Leicester.
CREATIVE WORK IN A POST BREXIT UK
On Wednesday, October 12th 2016, The Fourchettes and the University of Leicester Department of Media and Communication hosted an informal working session about creative work in a Post-Brexit United Kingdom. The round table discussion was part of Leicester Department of Media and Communication's 50th anniversary celebrations, and was hosted at Goldsmiths, University of London.
BENDING THE RULES | AOIR 2016
On Saturday, October 8th 2016, members of Humbolt University's academic community joined Alison Harvey (chair), Jessalyn Keller, Mary Elizabeth Luka, Mélanie Millette, Tamara Shepherd for Bending the Rules - a discussion at the 2016 Association of Internet Researchers conference.
Interventions in Digital Methods | U of C
On Friday, September 30th 2016, over 30 members of the University of Calgary’s academic community joined Dr. Tamara Shepherd, Dr. Jessalynn Keller and M.A. Students Carla McCutchin and Sheena Manabat for Interventions in Digital Methods - a seminar launching the CMF Speaker Series for the 2016-2017 season.