2.9 KiB
Title: Start Slug: start
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. The term emerges from the need to reconsider our digital infrastructures, study their underlying systems of inequality and exploitation, and acknowledge their limits in terms of capacity and care. This module explores what role bots can have as infrastructural stress relievers, by actively engaging with the norms and values inscribed into computational tools and infrastructures.
The model intertwines theoretical and practical work together, [mb: insert prototypes as arguments].
Goals
The goal of this online module is to foster what Karin van Es terms 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
- signalled 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
[mb: let's discuss if we move this section to the about page or not]
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 produced in the context of the course Data-driven research and digital tools at the Department of Media & Culture, Utrecht University in collaboration with Dr. Karin van Es and Creative Coding Utrecht.
This work is kindly supported by the focus area Governing the Digital Society at Utrecht University and (© Varia 2020) published under the XXX license.
The sources of this module can be found on https://git.vvvvvvaria.org/mb/bots-as-digital-infrapunctures.