Representation & Representativeness at EPIC2019

On Monday, Nov. 11, I’ll be joining Donna Lanclos, Amber Greene, Ruchika Muchhala, and Autumn Sanders Foster to discuss how ethnographic researchers think about representing the experiences of others, especially in the context of industry research, at EPIC2019 in Providence, RI. From the abstract:

Ethnographers take pride in representing people’s voices with fidelity, empathy, and deep contextual understanding. But our work can end up reinforcing a distinction between people who “have experience” that we study for insights and people who “have expertise” to use, shape, and monetize that experience.

Donna Lanclos previews the panel discussion on the challenges of representation for ethnographic researchers over on the EPIC blog, Perspectives:

https://www.epicpeople.org/representation-panel/

More information on the panel:

https://2019.epicpeople.org/panels/#representation

Design & Society Workshop, NYC Nov. 30-Dec. 1

I’m excited to be partnering with Danya Glabau of Implosion Labs to offer a day-and-a-half workshop on Design & Society!

“Design is a dominant paradigm for building and understanding the modern world. The language of design is especially prominent in the digital realm, where its assumptions influence how we interact with the world and with each other. But how has design come to matter? Why does it seem like such an important tool in our current cultural moment? What norms and assumptions inform the design of everyday technologies via design schools like UX? And what are the political implications of interface design?”

We will learn about critical and ethnographic approaches to design, especially digital design, through readings, discussion, and hands-on exercises.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/design-society-workshop-tickets-51554750647

Our webinar from October 16 on Design & Society is also now online!

https://www.implosionlabs.com/design-society-webinar

Design & Society Webinar Oct. 16

Join me and Danya Glabau of Implosion Labs, LLC for a free webinar on critical & anthropological approaches to design, from 1-2pm on Tuesday, October 16. Why has design become such an important tool in thinking about technology and society?

Graphic of a 3D wireframe urban block

Design is a dominant paradigm for building and understanding the modern world. The language of design is especially prominent in the digital realm, where its assumptions influence how we interact with the world and with each other.

In this 45-minute webinar, media anthropologist Dr. Jordan Kramer will outline critical perspectives on digital design that will shake up participants’ assumptions about the impact of design on society. Participants will consider questions like: How has design come to matter? Why does it seem like such an important tool in our current moment? What norms and assumptions inform the design of everyday technologies through approaches like UX? And what are the political effects of interface design?

Participants will leave this webinar with an overview of the critical questions that practitioners, users, and observers can ask to ensure that the futures we design will truly be better than the past that designers seek to transcend.

Implosion Labs
Design & Society Webinar

1-2pm EST
Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Upcoming talk: When Social Media are the News, Bard College

Thursday, April 20, Bard College, NY

What does it mean for the public sphere when social media become a news platform in their own right? I’ll be discussing how the merger of social media with the news media has troubling consequences for politics and shared understandings of reality.

http://anthropology.bard.edu/events/

A decade ago, social media—that is, social network sites like MySpace and Facebook—were taking off among teens and fan communities. News consumption in the US was shifting as well, as cable news outstripped network shows and print circulation declined. Only a few years later, Facebook and Twitter became widespread, perhaps losing their cool among young people. As social media coalesce into a new mass medium, these platforms integrate news stories into spaces previously envisioned for leisure and friendship. Planned changes to the Facebook News Feed algorithm cultivated this process further. By 2015, breaking events like the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris unfolded online in a new way, sparking the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag and public memorials across Europe hours later. Reading news websites was already part of daily practice among young people I studied in Berlin in the late 2000s, but by 2015, social media became the place to encounter and experience news stories. This shift is reshaping how the news circulates, facilitating viral “fake” news and disinformation regimes. Social media contribute to reconfiguring the meaning of public and private, but what is at stake when social media are the news?

Time: 6:00 pm
Location: Olin, Room 202
Contact: Jonah Rubin
E-mail: jrubin@bard.edu