We are pleased to announce the launch of SWCTN Presents… A series of talks, workshops and discussions from our growing network to inspire and inform.
We begin this series on Friday 5 March, with the final of our series of Data Talks, as part of the Pervasive Media Studio Lunchtime Talk series. Teresa Dillon will be joining us for Face Unlock, exploring the world of facial recognition and its long history – followed by a Q&A.
5 March 1.00pm – 2.00 pm
Face Unlock
Our technologies are never neutral.
Embedded within their design and articulation are nested decisions that propagate certain views and ways of being in the world, over others. This talk focuses on the histories of facial recognition software, drawing on research into early photography, anthropometric techniques and the normalisation of the ‘criminal profile’. The presentation, weaves a story from racial describing and urban population control in the late 1800s, to the birth of eugenics, to modern day, facial profiling data sets and their associated bias. Against this backdrop, the role of the artist and others in subverting these given vectors will be highlighted as part of a continual push against the politicisation of identity under the structure and gaze of the surveillance state.
Teresa Dillon is an artist and researcher. Her work explores situated practices and the lived entanglements of techno-civic systems. She holds the post of Professor of City Futures at the School of Art and Design, University of the West of England and is a founding member of the spatial collective, soft agency.
Tuesday 16 March, 12noon – 1pm
Creative Technology and Well Being Online Talk
The Studio at Palace Yard Mews, Bath Spa University’s innovation and enterprise hub, is hosting a talk in conjunction with SWCTN Presents… on the theme of Creativity Technology and Well Being.
The talk will be hosted by SWCTN Data Fellow and Studio Resident Annie Legge from Bath-based cooperative, DOT PROJECT.
DOT PROJECT enables third sector organisations to find digital solutions to thrive and work in a more connected way and to deliver more sustainable impact.
The panelists are:
Saul Jaffé from the Plymouth-based SWCTN data prototyping team, Mindflow, who are creating a personalised wearable system designed to provide the user with calming, restorative audio and tactile experiences through innovative use of real-time physiological data.
Chloe Meineckfrom Bristol-based Studio Meineck. Chloe is a former SWCTN Automation Fellow and prototype team leader. She will talk about her SWCTN prototype, Weather Report – a digital tool to monitor and track inner weather as a visual metaphor for mental health and wellbeing – as well as her other work around wellbeing including Music Memory Box (for people with Alzheimers) and trove (for children in care).
Dr Matt Baker, is a senior lecturer in Human Biology at Bath Spa and has recently completed his SWCTN data Fellowship. His work explores our unconscious, non-visual interaction with light and the way it influences our mood, and creativity. In particular he is interested in the way time spent outdoors can influence the creative processes involved in writing, and how this changes with the seasons. His talk will focus on the health and creative benefits of sunlight as well as some of the technology he tested during his fellowship, including scientific instruments and consumer focussed wearables.
The session will take the form of short presentations from each of the panelists followed by a curated discussion and Q&A. It will be live subtitled.
Save the date for future events (more info to follow):
Tues 9 March
Thurs 11 March
Fri 16 April