CDI-TV
CDI-TV is an experimental initiative from the Centre for Digital Inquiry dedicated to the exploration of digital
media culture through hybrid livestreaming. Our sessions feature talks and discussions on key topics, artistic practices, emerging concepts, inventive methods, computational politics and interdisciplinary work on the digital with invited guests.
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06.03.25: Reality Engineering
Feat. Noortje Marres and Matias Valderrama Barragan
Time: 17:00 -18:00 GMT
Location: FAB 1.16 and online on CDI-TVLink opens in a new window
Join us for a conversation about proliferating efforts to create artificial societies. How artificial are the “societies” we live in today? To what extent is the state and tech industry to blame for the embrace of “social engineering”? What does the “techlash” have to do with it? And how is it that despite widespread criticism of Big Tech, we continue to see an increasing intervention of these companies in our everyday realities?
This livestream will be a warm-up to the Artificial Societies symposium to be held on Friday 7 March. If you would like to register for this symposium, co-organised by Warwick's Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies with the Edinburgh Futures Institute, please fill in this form, which is open until 28 February for both online and in-person attendees - https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/events/artificial-societies/call-for-abstracts/Link opens in a new window
Noortje Marres is Professor in Science, Technology and Society in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Siegen (Germany) affiliated with the Media of Cooperation Research Programme. Her first book, Material Participation : Technology, the Environment and Everyday Publics (2012/2015) builds on field research in ecological demonstration homes, and develops an analysis of material forms of engagement. Noortje latest book, Digital Sociology (Polity, 2017) outlines a critical and creative approach to researching digital societies, and argues that the relations between social research and social life are changing in a digital age. She is close to finishing a research project on societal testing of intelligent technologies.
Matias Valderrama Barragan is a third-year ESRC-funded PhD researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodology (University of Warwick). Matias holds an MA and BA in Sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Matias Master’s thesis, deploys digital methods to map a controversy around a hydroelectric project in the south of Chile. Matias worked on Fondecyt research projects and studies for NGOs on the social implications of multiple digital technologies in Chile, such as environmental sensors, drones, predictive models, and self-tracking devices.
05.03.25: Digital Disconnection
Feat. Alessandro Gandini
Time: 17:00 -18:00 GMT
Location: FAB 1.16 and online on CDI-TVLink opens in a new window
In this episode of CDI TV, we explore digital disconnection in the post-pandemic era. While digital technology was essential for maintaining connectivity during the pandemic, it also fueled burnout, social fatigue, and the erosion of boundaries between personal and professional life. As a result, our relationship with technology has come under renewed scrutiny - while also becoming a site of commodification, with companies marketing digital detox programs and mindfulness courses that promise to restore mental well-being, productivity, and authentic social interactions. The current disconnection trend manifests in everyday practices such as setting phone time limits, quitting social media, and avoiding news, as well as broader efforts to disengage from work, exemplified by 'quiet quitting' - where employees reject excessive demands and prioritize well-being over hustle culture. Taken together, these shifts point to a broader reconfiguration of social structures in digital societies.