The #technofix is under scrutiny in #sts. But for a somewhat surprising reason: because of its conceptual weakness. So here is the #infrastructure fix. And thoughts from #LeakageSTS in Dresden

    This is a hot take that Lee Vinsel has been trying to drive home for a couple of weeks already. “Hot”, as in, a lively idea, something he grapples with. I find the idea puzzling and compelling. So here are a few thoughts, experiences, and links to follow. Describing something as a #technofix has become a staple of critical commentary on technology, and perhaps global capitalism per se. A technofix is not really a fix, rather, it distracts from the actual issues.

    Read More

    The chip rush of #Vietnam is in trouble.

    As explained by Mike, energy shortages will hit the country this spring. Again. Investors might move on. Some already did

    https://open.substack.com/pub/vietnamweekly/p/pdp8s-implementation-plan-green-lit?r=2t5d0a&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

    #tech

    Check out this story about the methods of #AI model training. The stacking. Etc. A qualitative critique.

    It’s only by looking at datasets that we can get a better sense of how AI models work, and the gaps, errors, and biases that can emerge.

    knowingmachines.org/models-al…

    #arte has a solid documentary on #chips. Most of the big names of the ongoing public drama are featured.

    www.arte.tv/de/videos…

    #geopolitics #tech #semiconductors

    Open Access PDF: Unser Buch über artenübergreifende Fürsorge ist freigeschaltet. Es handelt von der Fleischindustrie und den #Corona Lehren anhand einer Analyse öffentlicher Medien.

    www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-837…

    #sts #tiere

    As part of #stsleakage, we enjoyed the Robotron selection in #Dresden. Look at these beauties.

    #computer #history #gdr

    And what a splendid inaugural #stsing conference it was! ❤️

    Newspaper snippet that celebrated Robotron computers in east Germany. Chips displayed on top, museum style An old mainframe computer. Like a boring desk but with two nice screens and a colourful keyboard An old computer that looks like a big switch, lots of cables that were manually managed and were the computing act. A few buttons below An early personal computer by Robotron. It uses uncommon dark grey colours

    #stsleakage with a keynote by Amade M’charek, emphasizing what academia can be, what it can achieve: carefully presenting and listening. A brutal case, neglect. Paying attention to the seas, migration, colonial pasts and presents, protest, humans missing and buried, songs, silence

    #sts #migration

    Shot from a lecture hall with the afternoon light sending beautiful colours through the windows, with the speaker and screen in the dark. It's a room with quite a lot of people, red flip chairs, a large screen on the wall; typical German lecture hall

    Meanwhile, a critical book may be enough to get you into jail in #Hongkong. A book. #China is proud:

    “We no longer need to worry about saboteurs…pushing Hong Kong into an abyss.”

    www.rfa.org/english/n…

    #STSLeakage starts with a careful situating exercise, and the provocation that is leakage.

    Susann Wagenknecht succinctly summarises the terms powers and weaknesses.

    #sts certainly loves this term. It might be a problem. Or quite the contrary, the dominant terms still are others. 💧

    Shot of a conference speaker with a slide in the background. It discusses theoretical and methodological consequences of the term leakage. Leakage comes with a focus on specific containers and their leaks, whatever it may be. It's not new, but perhaps newly on the agenda

    Joining #STSLeakage in Dresden, here is some #streetphotography to get us going. To arrive.

    A bit of smoke looming in the distance, a nod towards the first keynote by Nerea Calvillo, “Aeropolis or the Words of Leaking Airs”? It’s my first clean for months, so let’s trouble that.

    #sts #antifa

    Morning shot in Dresden, a long street sprinkled with trees, the sun rising at the horizon, next to an industrial chimney A beautiful house from the Gründerzeit era, and some Antifa graffiti on the street pavements in front of the house. A crossed out "A" indicates the fights on the street Just a nice yellow tram on the road Shot of a church from the distance with red roofs in the front

    #sts has a problem with #democracy. It follows from strong assumptions around democracy, e.g. through experts, citizen science, experimentalism, …

    👊 Demokratiedämmerung

    www.theorieblog.de/index.php…

    Learning to pronounce: the struggle with tiếng Việt.

    (Ok, the x is actually an /s/ but this one is for the drama.)

    #vietnamese #language #learning #meme

    A cute kitten.

    https://stefanlaser.net/uploads/2024/c3b9e5a43f.jpg

    Community information. Bright and clear.

    The party’s anniversary was just a few weeks ago.

    #Vietnam #communism #hanoi #streetphotography #fujifilm

    This is a 75mm photo of a community white board on the street, displaying current information for the local ward. Little red communist and vietnamese flags fly above. This is how politics, info and more happens: on a white board, by hand. There's also a public speaker twice or thrice a day, informing about things (and reminding of citizen's duty to believe in the party).

    Sharing special issue love: We invite contributions to discuss the mediation of knowledge practices and planetary matter through data infrastructures.

    sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/announcem…

    #datastudies #mediastudies #sts

    We produced controversy maps on the chip rush in #Vietnam.

    26th floor.

    A timeline representing corporate, legal and public activities. A timelapse of rural change. A bit artsy.

    To be translated into a digital format.

    #semiconductors #sts #tech

    Semi-transparent aerial pictures in front of a large window with the city of Hanoi in the background. These are industrial fabrications sitesLeft side: a timeline printed on a wall, left side: the view of the city. Fog, air pollution, actually. A visual reminder of what the facilities are capable of, semiconductor facilitiesMore of the same, but with different material. Left side: part of a timeline, left side: overview of industrial sites in Northern Vietnam with the backdrop of Hanoi. There's also a flip-book using Google Earth histories to trace transitions

    Old town love, #Hanoi.

    #Streetphotography #photography #vietnam

    Wife and bride on the street, taking photos on a Sunday stroll. Close to the most famous lake and the opera, where you want to be.  They are holding hands, traffic in the back

    Rant on #Microsoft #Windows: Is there any bitter sweet blog post or whatever text tackling the SETTINGS and GROUP POLICIES and REGISTRY and whatnot levels of #software configuration?

    It took me hours to turn on app access to mics. Terrible #ux.

    Current mood.

    #streetphotography #vietnam #wildlife #academicchatter

    A motorbike on a small road with a large elevated road behind, holding up a bag full of white balloons. Grey sky, of course. Construction and cables on top. Faces of the driver and his companion are hidden behind the balloons

    A linklist that spreads air purification dedication through a viral story, two neat podcasts, and once again looks at pleasant ways to enjoy the web

    You have probably come across this post, but in case you have not, get ready for a thorough analysis that is not only for pollution or tech nerds. (But it’s certainly ALSO for those people.) In “How Google is killing independent sites like ours”, the independent website HouseFresh goes into the details to show why Google Search has deteriorated – has become shit, as Cory Doctorow puts it. housefresh.com/david-vs-… Savvy SEOs at big media publishers (or third-party vendors hired by them) realised that they could create pages for ‘best of’ product recommendations without the need to invest any time or effort in actually testing and reviewing the products first.

    Read More

    I’m a fan (and soon co-editor) of idiosyncratic, speculative dictionaries. But what’s their story? Did it start with Serres’ “Le Trésor”? Surely not.

    More recently: “Fuel” (Pinkus) or “Anthropocene Unseen” (Anand, Howe)

    #sociology #sts #philosophy

← Newer Posts Older Posts →