Modulating Matters of Computation, Modelling and Hyper-Separations

We engage in a conversation with critical ecofeminism, which proposed to transform the colonialism-racism-capitalism-patriarchalism induced environmental crisis by non-essentialist countering of oppressions and hyper-separations produced by human/nature dualism. We modulate the critical ecofeminist approach by countering a similar dualism, namely that of nature/technology. Furthermore, our theoretical balance-act has a praxis-oriented side: we believe that computation can be included in ecofeminist action. By providing alternative forms of engagement to instrumentalization, we trace pathways to different futures, countering the binary narratives of technology but also its moralizing of socio-cultural mediation. We take an intersectional approach to outcomes of computational modelling (simulations, visualisations, forecasts) and discuss the ecofeminist method of synthesis as a way to include different perspectives into computational processes. We work with two ‘modulated models’ that pay attention to assumptions, observations and thinking about urban commoning initiatives, and amateur knowledge of radio telecommunications. We aspire to provoke discussions about different modes of inclusion in communities and archives that are centred on shared, environment-friendly, solidarity oriented life-style and mutual care. Our approach engages with feminist arguments and inquiries into ways patriarchalism is embedded in our relationship to technoscience and engineering. We explore modes of resistance by proposing skilled and alternative uses of these techniques.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Selena Savić

Shintaro Miyazaki

Conference

Publication date: September 2021

Publication date (Print): September 2021

Pages: 63-68

Affiliations

[0001]FHNW Academy of Art and Design

Basel, Switzerland

[0002]Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Berlin, Germany

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/POM2021.8

SO-VID: f525f048-e345-4bc5-89fd-0ba9d88cb809

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of Politics of the Machines - Rogue Research 2021

Conference acronym: POM 2021

Conference number: 3

Conference location: Berlin, Germany

Conference date: September 14-17, 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: debate and devise concepts and practices that seek to critically question and unravel novel modes of science

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/POM2021.8

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

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K.W. Crenshaw (2017). On Intersectionality: Essential Writings. New York, N.Y: The New Press.
C. D’Ignazio & L.F. Klein (2020). Data feminism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
D. Haraway (1987). A manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s. Australian Feminist Studies, 2 (4), 1–42. Available from http://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.1987.9961538.
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V. Kirby (ed.). (2017). What if culture was nature all along? Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
R. Kitchin & A. Fraser (2020). Slow Computing. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
S. Mattern (2021). A city is not a computer: other urban intelligences, 1st ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
J. Parikka (2015). A geology of media. Minneapolis ; London: University of Minnesota Press.
C. Pias (2011). On the epistemology of computer simulation. Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung, 2011 (1), 29–54.
V. Plumwood (2004). Gender, Eco-Feminism and the Environment. In: R. White (ed.). Controversies in Environmental Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43–60. Available from http://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511804434.004 [Accessed 14 March 2021].
A. Salleh (2017). Ecofeminism as Politics. Nature, Marx and the Postmodern. London: Zed Books.
S. Savić (In Press). Articulating Nomadic Identities of Radio Signals. Matter: Journal of New Materialist Research, (New Materialist Informatics – Special Issue).
S. Savić & Y.P. Martins (2021). Telling Stories on Commoning with Design of Models and Simulations. In: M. Botta and S. Junginger (eds.). Design as Common Good / Framing Design through Pluralism and Social Values. 2021. Luzern, Lugano, Zurich: SUPSI, HSLU, swissdesignnetwork, 614–627.
S. Savićet al. (2020). Toys for Conviviality. Situating Commoning, Computation and Modelling. Open Cultural Studies, 4 (1), 143–153. Available from http://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2020-0015.
T.C. Schelling (1971). Dynamic models of segregation. The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 1 (2), 143–186. Available from http://doi.org/10.1080/0022250X.1971.9989794
H.A. Simon (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial, Third. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
G.C. Spivak (2003). Death of a discipline. New York: Columbia University Press.
I. Stengers (2000). The invention of modern science. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
O. Timofeeva (2018). The History of Animals: A Philosophy. Bloomsbury Academic.
U. Wilensky & K. Reisman (1998). Connected Science: Learning Biology through Constructing and Testing Computational Theories - an Embodied Modeling Approach. International Journal of Complex Systems, (234), 1–12.
I. Xenakis (1985). Arts/Sciences: Alloys. The Thesis Defense of Iannis Xenakis. New York, NY: Pendragon Press.
K. Yusoff (2018). A billion black Anthropocenes or none. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
F. Zalamea (2012). Synthetic philosophy of contemporary mathematics. Falmouth, U.K. : New York: Urbanomic ; Sequence Press.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] R. Braidotti (2012). Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti. Columbia University Press.

[2] K.W. Crenshaw (2017). On Intersectionality: Essential Writings. New York, N.Y: The New Press.

[3] C. D’Ignazio & L.F. Klein (2020). Data feminism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

[4] D. Haraway (1987). A manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s. Australian Feminist Studies, 2 (4), 1–42. Available from http://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.1987.9961538.

[5] D. Haraway (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, 14 (3), 575. Available from http://doi.org/10.2307/3178066.

[6] V. Kirby (ed.). (2017). What if culture was nature all along? Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

[7] R. Kitchin & A. Fraser (2020). Slow Computing. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

[8] S. Mattern (2021). A city is not a computer: other urban intelligences, 1st ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

[9] J. Parikka (2015). A geology of media. Minneapolis ; London: University of Minnesota Press.

[10] C. Pias (2011). On the epistemology of computer simulation. Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung, 2011 (1), 29–54.

[11] V. Plumwood (2004). Gender, Eco-Feminism and the Environment. In: R. White (ed.). Controversies in Environmental Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43–60. Available from http://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511804434.004 [Accessed 14 March 2021].

[12] A. Salleh (2017). Ecofeminism as Politics. Nature, Marx and the Postmodern. London: Zed Books.

[13] S. Savić (In Press). Articulating Nomadic Identities of Radio Signals. Matter: Journal of New Materialist Research, (New Materialist Informatics – Special Issue).

[14] S. Savić & Y.P. Martins (2021). Telling Stories on Commoning with Design of Models and Simulations. In: M. Botta and S. Junginger (eds.). Design as Common Good / Framing Design through Pluralism and Social Values. 2021. Luzern, Lugano, Zurich: SUPSI, HSLU, swissdesignnetwork, 614–627.

[15] S. Savićet al. (2020). Toys for Conviviality. Situating Commoning, Computation and Modelling. Open Cultural Studies, 4 (1), 143–153. Available from http://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2020-0015.

[16] T.C. Schelling (1971). Dynamic models of segregation. The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 1 (2), 143–186. Available from http://doi.org/10.1080/0022250X.1971.9989794

[17] H.A. Simon (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial, Third. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

[18] G.C. Spivak (2003). Death of a discipline. New York: Columbia University Press.

[19] I. Stengers (2000). The invention of modern science. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

[20] O. Timofeeva (2018). The History of Animals: A Philosophy. Bloomsbury Academic.

[21] U. Wilensky & K. Reisman (1998). Connected Science: Learning Biology through Constructing and Testing Computational Theories - an Embodied Modeling Approach. International Journal of Complex Systems, (234), 1–12.

[22] I. Xenakis (1985). Arts/Sciences: Alloys. The Thesis Defense of Iannis Xenakis. New York, NY: Pendragon Press.

[23] K. Yusoff (2018). A billion black Anthropocenes or none. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

[24] F. Zalamea (2012). Synthetic philosophy of contemporary mathematics. Falmouth, U.K. : New York: Urbanomic ; Sequence Press.

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