Art Science Connect: AI & Affect, Data & Democracy, and Biohacking

Art Science Connect brings scientists, artists, and interdisciplinary scholars together at The CUNY Graduate Center for public conversation and innovative programs that encourage forward-looking collaboration. Our programs are free of charge and open to the public.

Our Spring 2021 season features American Artist, Francesca Bria, Dawn Chan, Stephanie Dinkins, Legacy Russell, Hito Steyerl, and more! RSVP through our Eventbrite page, and visit our webpage for past events and updates. 
 

AI & Affect: April 29, 12pm EST 
American Artist, Legacy Russell, Stephanie Dinkins, and Dawn Chan consider the perils and promises of AI
The increasingly prevalent use of AI technology has shifted the cultural politics of emotion. On the one hand, AI has instigated new models of collective belonging and radical joy for traditionally marginalized subjects. On the other, the use of AI to surveil, map, and commodify an entire panoply of physiological markers and body language has resulted in politically fraught and oftentimes violent modes of subjectivization. Addressing the nexus of technology and affect within AI ecosystems, the AI & Affect panel brings together artists and theoriststo discuss how AI can help highlight digital prejudices and biases, reconceptualize the politics of identity, and build more equitable digital futures, among other topics.

Organized by Helena Shaskevich and Aubrey Knox.

Data & Democracy: May 3, 12pm EST
Francesca Bria and Hito Steyerl on data commons and sovereignty
Imagine a “data commons” where accumulated personal statistics are structured from the bottom-up, as opposed to state and corporate top-down jurisdiction. A commons in which individual citizens determine their habits, and understand the sharing of biometric information as a personal and free act of volition. Imagine, and see: there is no digital revolution without a democratic revolution.

Artist and activist Gregory Sholette will moderate a discussion between the Italian IT innovator, Francesca Bria, and the German media artist and theorist, Hito Steyerl. Together, they will conisder the visionary and practical application of encryption technology and blockchain distribution to ensure citizen sovereignty over their own data profile, while still providing communities and municipalities with essential information needed for improving real-world social and cultural conditions, from monitoring indoor air quality to constructing a cooperative sphere of artistic production and participation. 

Biohacking: May 17, 12pm EST 
Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Sophie Zaaijer discuss the social, political, and scientific implications of DIY bioengineering
Who owns your DNA? The answer to this is not nearly as self-evident as one might expect. As corporations collect and commercialize genomic data, artists and activists have turned to biohacking to assert their own autonomy at the molecular level. With moderator Dorothy Santos, Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Sophie Zaaijer will consider how biohackers can foreground autonomy and biomedical consent even as genomic data is increasingly capitalized as a surveillance tool, among other topics. 

Organized by Helena Shaskevich and Aubrey Knox.