LEARNING OUTCOMES
Student will conclude the course with extra study credits.
Credits: 5
Schedule: 13.09.2021 - 25.10.2021
Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Bassam El Baroni, Edel O'Reilly
Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):
Course tutors are :
Edel O Reilly, Aalto Curator - edel.oreilly@aalto.fi
Bethany Crawford, Artist and Researcher
CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):
Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):
Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
valid for whole curriculum period:
This is a extra component to go alongside with any of ViCCA major courses in addition to enlarge the amount of study credits. Project can be theoretical or practical part of the course.
applies in this implementation
Building upon the aphorisms that “data is the new oil” and “data is the new water” the ‘Data Vitality’ course intends to creatively interrogate data’s changing value within the increasingly ubiquitous digital governance of our lived realities. Through the course we will question the correspondence of data and power by engaging with theoretical texts and other materials that explicate the underpinnings of the contemporary “datalogical turn”. This course will be co-tutored by artist and researcher Bethany Crawford and curator, Edel O’ Reilly, with an exhibition outcome to the course. Each week the thematic of the class will be informed by a selection of materials including recorded interviews with various scholars and professionals working in data associated industries as related to open research and the university. The weekly sessions will be comprised of readings, discussion, presentations and practical components that will allow for a comprehensive engagement with issues relating to the data economy, data ownership, digital subjectivity, and the regulation and social impact of data practices. A fundamental component of this class is to think through the material and embodied ramifications of these abstracted modes of governance. This will be translated within the classwork as an emphasis on artistic production in response to the theoretical concepts presented within the literature.
The outcome and assessments of the course will be to work towards creating output for an exhibition in November 2021.
The course is open to students from all art and media practices and theoretical backgrounds, reflective of the broad and entangled subject areas of the courses content, and as a method to encourage a propositional transdisciplinarity of both art praxis and theory that is imperative in critical engagement with conceptions of digital futures.
Assessment Methods and Criteria
valid for whole curriculum period:
Course work and partcipation.
applies in this implementation
Evaluation criteria based on critical engagement with specialised literature and concepts surrounding data economies and value, to have an overview of regulatory initiatives around data practices, to have an overview of alternative data economies, to think and articulate artistic responses to theoretical content, to develop and formalize work towards exhibition.
Teaching and study methods will consist of 2 weekly sessions in which the students will have been expected to engage with a selection of materials (readings, interviews, and other forms of media)
Between each of the weekly sessions students will also be asked to prepare an object or an example related to the week’s focus, which will be presented and consolidated into a visual “sketchbook/zine”
The outcome of the course will be group work towards an exhibition
- Weekly engagement with required readings and materials
- Weekly presentation of example, object or creative response to the thematic of the class
- Work developed for final exhibition
- Attendance
- Participation
Workload
valid for whole curriculum period:
20h contact hours, 115h Independent work
applies in this implementation
Course workload / Credits: Total hours –135hrs - 5ECTS (1 Credit = 26.7hours)
12 hours (1 h x 12) - Contact teaching
6 hours (0.5 h x 12) - Lecturing
6 hours (0.5 h x 12) - Exercises
78 hours (6.5 h x 12) - Individual studying
12 hours (2h x 6) individual project work preparation
12 hours (2h x 6) - Project work
9 hours (3h x 3) - Preparing for final assessment / Exhibition
80 % attendance required, final project
Attendance is expected and will be pass/fail
participation will be pass/fail
final project will be group project pass/fail
All components will have to be passed in order to receive the course credits
DETAILS
Study Material
applies in this implementation
Study Materials include text and media formats for interviews, case studies and theory. Full reading list updated by course commencement
Week One: Data economy, power and sovereignty
Reading:
Zuboff, S., The Age of Surveillance Capitalism : The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (2019), Chapter 8 - Redition: From Experience to data, pp. 444-485D’Agnazio, C. & Klein, L.F., Data Feminism (2020), Chapter one: The Power Chapter, pp. 21 - 47Chandler, D. & Fuchs, C., Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Capitalism, Labour and Politics n the Age of Big Data (2019) Introduction: Big Data Capitalism - Politics, Activism and Theory pp.1-21Additional readings:Kukutai, T., & Taylor, J. (Eds) Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Toward and AgendaChapter three: What does data sovereignty imålöy: what does it look like_ C Mathhew Snipppp. 39 - 54Audio Interview:
Human-Driven Data
Finnish Innovation fund SITRA exists to support research projects and works on issues around redefining the model for a European data economy. Through working with policy makers, ministries and private industry SITRA’s activities and investments work to promote human-centric data economies and fair data economies. As an independent organisation with an advisory role to government, SITRA provide an insight into how industry and policy makers are organising, exploiting and regulating data economies, data infrastructures and data governance. The healthcare system was one of the main pilot projects where data sharing was researched and trialled in addition to agricultural industry’s data-machine infrastructures. Data is discussed as a common good or infrastructure where access and sharing is rewarded. The role of decisions around data storage in terms of data gathering practices and sustainable ICT or green ICT practices are questioned with criteria for fair data maturity models, cybersecurity, data compliance and data literacy. Is the responsibility for communicating contracts and consent for data sharing with the individual user or with the service provider? How can incentives and transparency promote improved and sustainable practices for fair data sharing?
Keywords:
Human-driven data, data economy, health data, digital health hub, citizen-centric healthcare, wellbeing, GDPR, data portability, data-ethics, fair data, data markets, innovation, cybersecurity, big tech, platform data, digital decade, data transparency, industrial data sharing, personal data sharing, state driven data economy, international data spaces, soft infrastructure, data sharing, data regulation, data sovereignty, sustainable technology, green ICT, data compliance, data literacy.
Organisational reference:
Jaana Sinipuro is an experienced ICT professional who works as Project Director responsible for the IHAN® – Human-driven data economy focus area and also sees to the final stages of the Digital Health HUB projects. Sitra is an independent future-oriented fund that acts as a think tank, promoter of experiments and operating models and a catalyst for co-operation. As a fund directly accountable to the Finnish Parliament, Sitra’s decision-making processes are tied to parliamentary systems and their administration includes a Supervisory Board, Board and President.
Substitutes for Courses
valid for whole curriculum period:
Prerequisites
valid for whole curriculum period:
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further Information
valid for whole curriculum period:
Decision by Vice Dean Rasmus Vuori in pandemic conditions 2021: The teaching period 2020-21 and 2021-22 has changed.
Teaching Period:
2020-2021 I-V+summer, Period may vary
2021-2022 I-V+summer, Period may vary
Course Homepage: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/search.php?search=TAI-E316601
Registration for Courses: Sisu replaces Oodi on 9 August, 2021. Priority order to courses is according to the order of priority decided by the Academic committee for School of Arts, Design and Architecture: https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/registering-to-courses-and-the-order-of-priority-in-aalto-arts
applies in this implementation
Weekly focus
Week 1 – Data economy, power and sovereignty
Week 2 – Artificial Intelligence, epistemic production and image making
Week 3 – Digital Infrastructures: Data opacity, literacy and accessibility
Week 4 – Data ownership, circulation and economies of knowledge
Week 5 – Quantum computing and qubits
Week 6 – Exhibition preparation
Details on the schedule
applies in this implementation
Class Schedule
Mondays 10:00-11.30 / Thursdays 13:00-15:30
Dates
13.09.21 - 10:00-12:00
16.09.21 – 13:00-15:00
20.09.21 - 10:00-12:00
23.09.21 – 13:00-15:00
*27.09.21 – no class this Monday
30.09.21 – 13:00-15:00
04.09.21 - 10:00-12:00
07.10.21 – 13:00-15:00
11.10.21 - 10:00-12:00
14.10.21 – 13:00-15:00
18.10.21 - 10:00-12:00
21.10.21 – 13:00-15:00
25.10.21 - 10:00-12:00