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Bots as Digital Infrapunctures

Welcome to the online module Bots as Digital Infrapunctures. :-)

Inspired by the potential of digital infrapuncture, a term coined by researcher Deb Verhoeven, this module brings bots and infrastructure together as infrapunctures. Infrapuncture is a portmanteau word which conflates infrastructure and acupuncture, referring to small-scale interventions that have a catalytic effect on the whole. This module explores what role bots can have as infrastructural stress relievers.

Goals

The goal of this online module is to foster tool criticism thinking (e.g. the skills and practices for critically engaging with the norms and values of our computational tools and infrastructures). The module consists of readings, videos and exercises that help you analyze and reflect on how infrastructural agency, impact or power is shaped, structured and performed.

By the end of the module you will have:

• identified some of the norms and values of a digital communication infrastructures
• signaled a particular tension (or rather hurt) that emerges from these norms and values
• proposed a bot that could potentially address or engage with this hurt
• evaluated the implications of bot-making and bot interventions

You can go through this module at your own speed. No subscription is required, you can simply start by clicking on the start button in each section and follow the instructions.

You will need approximately 4 hours to go through this whole module.

About this module

This module is written by Cristina Cochior and Manetta Berends, who are both part of Varia, a member-based organisation in the South of Rotterdam that works on/with everyday technology.

The module is developed in the context of the Tool Criticism course at the Utrecht University in collaboration with Creative Coding Utrecht.

This work is kindly supported by the Utrecht University and (© Varia 2020) published under the XXX license.

The sources of this module can be found here: https://git.vvvvvvaria.org/mb/bots-as-digital-infrapunctures