In this intimate workshop, Olga Goriunova, Tony Sampson, and Nate Tkacz, will present their recent work. Through notions of 'conceptual personae' (Sampson), 'model characters' (Goriunova) and 'primal users' (Tkacz), each will present a different way to think about digital subjectivity. The workshop is open, but places are limited.

Register here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cdi/news-events/registration_digital_subjectivity

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Join us for a discussion about Tony Sampson's new work of dystopian media theory. Here's a description of the book:

Positing online users as 'sleepwalkers', Tony Sampson offers an original and compelling approach for understanding how social media platforms produce subjectivities.

Drawing on a wide range of theorists, including A.N. Whitehead and Gabriel Tarde, he provides tools to track his sleepwalker through the 'dark refrain of social media': a refrain that spreads through viral platform architectures with a staccato-like repetition of shock events, rumours, conspiracy, misinformation, big lies, search engine weaponization, data voids, populist strongmen, immune system failures, and far-right hate speech. Sampson's sleepwalker is not a pre-programmed smartphone junkie, but a conceptual personae intended to dodge capture by data doubles and lookalikes. Sleepwalkers are neither asleep nor wide awake; they are a liminal experimentation in collective mimicry and self-other relationality. Their purpose is to stir up a new kind of community that emerges from the potentialities of revolutionary contagion.

At a time in which social media is influencing more people than ever, A Sleepwalker's Guide to Social Media is an important reference for students and scholars of media theory, digital media and social media.

Details:

November 17th, 4:00-5:30 pm

Online and in person

Register: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cdi/news-events/sampson_registrationLink opens in a new window

The CDI is delighted to host Dominik Schindler and Matthew Fuller, who will share their current research, Communities and Algorithms: Epistemological Questions for a Critical Network Science, with the CDI community at Warwick. The talk is facilitated by British Academy Posdoctoral Fellow Patrick Brian Smith.

Details: 23rd May, 2pm, room FAB2.43 (in-person event), (click item heading for extended outline)

Register: please email patrick.smith.1@warwick.ac.uk to register your interest to attend.

How might we better understand, explore and investigate the diverse range of images we encounter in the humanities?

A two day in-person workshop convened by the Centre for Digital Inquiry. Led by Daniel van Strien, Digital Curator, British Library.

Please read more and register here.

As part of the international App Studies Initiative, CDI members Michael Dieter and Nate Tkacz have published the findings of their study of Covid apps, funded by the ESRC. Here is the abstract, published in the Internet Policy Review:

This article provides an exploratory systematic mapping of the global ecosystem of COVID-19 pandemic response apps. After considering policy updates by Google Play’s and Apple’s App Store, we analyse all the available response apps in July 2020; their different response types; the apps’ developers and geographical distribution; the ecosystem’s ‘generativity’ and developers’ responsiveness during the unfolding pandemic; the apps’ discursive positioning; and material conditions of their development. Google and Apple are gatekeepers of these app ecosystems and exercise control on different layers, shaping the pandemic app response as well as the relationships between governments, citizens, and other actors. We suggest that this global ecosystem of pandemic responses reflects an exceptional mode of what we call ‘pandemic platform governance’, where platforms have negotiated their commercial interests and the public interest in exceptional circumstances.

Network analysis offers an interesting way of exploring and visualising networks between social, economic and political actors.

This workshop will be led by Dr Kate Davison (University of Sheffield, History Dept.), assisted by Prof Mark Philp, Steve Ranford, and his colleagues Godwin Yeboah and James Tripp (of the newly formed Information and Digital Group Technology for Research; they are also part of the Centre for Digital Inquiry).

The concept and utility of social network analysis will be explored, and some of the software illustrated. The session will be hybrid. You are encouraged to prepare for the session by reading the Kadushin listed in below webpage, but this is not essential if you do not have the time beforehand. Although this is an event organised by the History department's Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Centre, it is open more widely to others in History and more widely. Please read more (and register if interested or share) using the following webpage.

How can you collect and examine social media data? In this workshop, we will use the R statistical programming language to download and begin to examine social media data from Twitter and Reddit. We look closely at the data and then zoom out to consider overall trends. The aim of this workshop is to introduce the collection and analysis of social media data. The materials for this workshop are available on GitHub here.

The workshop is available for Warwick staff and students, who can sign up here. If you have any queries then please contact james.tripp@warwick.ac.uk

Do you want to learn a new skill in Term 2? Have you ever thought of creating a basic map for a presentation or publication? What about creating an interactive web map for your own website or just to experiment how that will look in an internet browser? If you answered yes to any of these questions, and you are in Warwick, this workshop is for you!

In this introductory course, we will give you an overview on how to use different cartographic techniques to effectively present outcomes of digital data exploration using QGIS software. We assume no prior knowledge of GIS (Geographic Information System) and will explain how to get data into the GIS as well as how to produce maps using data. The workshop lead is Dr Godwin Yeboah (g.yeboah at warwick.ac.uk).

The Centre for Digital Inquiry research support scheme aims to support digital research at Warwick. We are interested in projects and/or events that either engage with digital tools and methods in critical, reflexive, and creative ways, or that substantively engage with the digital and closely related topics (data, AI, platforms, networks, etc.). Note: The CDI is a research centre and is only able to support projects that contribute toward research.

This year, the scheme will remain open until the funds are spent. All supported projects must be concluded by July 10, 2022. Up to £2,000 is available per project. The application form is available here.

Our public discourse is often mediated by social media. Both the personalities and the structure of the platforms shape our debates, to construct meaning and foster our shared selves. Finding means to collect, collate, and form narratives around these platforms is useful for scholars in the Arts and humanities.

In this workshop, we (a) look at tools for interacting with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to collect data, (b) explore some basic analysis and (c) consider critically what our tool and methods allow us to learn about these platforms and the debates within.