WORKSHOP: What Data Can't Hear (Mon 2 Dec, 9am-4pm)

What data can't hear: A one day blue sky workshop
Convenors: Tanja Dreher, Danielle Hynes, Poppy de Souza

Monday 2 December 2024,
9:00am-4:00pm (AEST)
ADA Innovation Hub, Goodsell Building Room 102/103
University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, Sydney, Australia 
Hosted by UNSW Data Justice Research Network and UNSW Media Futures Hub

View the program here

Data-driven systems, platforms and algorithms are increasingly embedded in all aspects of social life and daily communication. This ‘ubiquitous datafication’ is evident across domains including social housing and the NDIS, ‘care’ institutions, and health, education and politics. In this workshop we explore the implications of the datafication of the social world for processes and practices of political voice and listening.

Datafied systems are claimed to offer increased opportunities to have a say, to be heard in decision making and service provision, and to be part of governance structures. In the context of neoliberalism, these platformed opportunities and incitements to speak proliferate, however this is a version of voice that matters less and less. By centring political voice, we draw attention to voice as agency, participation and influence – or voice that matters. The listening lens turns attention to processes and practices of receptivity, recognition and response to political voice, participation and agency.

In this workshop, we consider questions around the increasing ubiquity of datafied voice and listening, including but not limited to the following: 

• How does datafication enable or constrain voice as agency or self-determination?

• IIn addition to questions of who can speak, participate or have a say - who or what is heard in data-driven systems?

• Can data hear structural or systemic violence, injustice or critique?

• How are data driven systems able to hear - or not hear - political voice?

For example, what might be the benefits and harms of automated decision-making in disability services for the ‘voice’ and agency of people with disability? How do apps and platforms shape opportunities for resident voice in social housing and renting? How do the extractive logics of contemporary algorithms impact self-determination and sovereignty?

Justice by Video: Assistant Professor Sandra Ristovska, University of Colorado Boulder (Fri 14 Jun, 12pm-1:30pm)

Friday 14 June 2024
12:00-1:30pm (AEST)
Robert Webster 334 (in person only)

From cell phones to police body cameras, today’s courts increasingly use video as evidence. A common assumption is that video can help people bear witness to an event as if they themselves were transported to the complicated scene of its unfolding. Rather than the second-hand testimony provided by eyewitnesses, video is assumed to offer an unmediated and firsthand account directly to the decision maker. As a result, U.S. courts, at all levels, lack safeguards to ensure rigorous visual analysis, an issue that is further amplified with the rise of generative AI and deepfakes. Drawing on research conducted during residency with the American Bar Association’s Science and Technology Law Section, this lecture considers the intricacies of using video to bear witness in court. It argues that without consistent guidance and applications for treating video as evidence, human rights and civil rights may be disparately recognized and upheld. 

Sandra Ristovska is Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Law at University of Colorado Boulder. Her research examines how, under what circumstances, and to what ends images shape the pursuit of justice and human rights in institutional and legal contexts nationally and internationally. Her publications include the award-winning monograph, Seeing Human Rights: Video Activism as a Proxy Profession (The MIT Press, 2021), an edited book, Visual Imagery and Human Rights Practice (Palgrave, 2018), and over two dozen journal articles and book chapters. Her work has received multiple awards from the International Communication Association (ICA), the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), and the National Communication Association (NCA). 

This talk is hosted by the UNSW Media Futures Hub.

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