Data Production Labour series

The new role that humans have taken in society is obscured by promises imposed by Big Tech.

From the 7th until 11th November, hosted at the Catharinafoyer of the Stadsgehoorzaal.
Breestraat 60, 2311 CS Leiden, Netherlands
Open from 10:00 till 22:00, free of charge.

DPL#1

In Data Production Labour #1 we explore the value of humans' attention and actions while performing everyday activities in social media such as scrolling through the news media feed. Participants of Data Production Labour #1 reveal their invisible labour for the Big Data industry by just scrolling through their social media feed. A sensor collects data from the hand movements while using social apps, an emotion-recognition software looks at the face and registers the visceral response to what is seen on the screen. Through this process and the correlations it creates, a receipt is produced that enables participants to demand a payment from those companies. The installation invites participants to perform a working shift of 2 minutes in order to reveal the economic value of their production of data.

DPL#2

In Data Production Labour #2 we explore the value of actions performed by using Captcha systems while performing everyday life activities such as browsing the web. We problematise the narrative of Captcha systems being presented as a service to verify that ̈you are not a robot ̈. The installation reveals the hidden dynamics of extraction of labour of these systems, particularly how this labour is being used to train image recognition technologies, also revealing how Google secretly sold this technology to the US-Department of Defense to be used in the drone program. The installation invites participants to perform a working shift filling captchas, and, by doing so, helps them reveal their unknowingly complicity with the military operations of the US drone program.

DPL#3

In Data Production Labour #3 we explore the value of humans' voice interactions with home assistants in everyday life and the value extracted of images provided to AI image recognition systems. We problematise the price of convenience of such systems and the larger economic and technological systems that are being developed by our use. The installation invites participants to interact with Alexa and have a conversation about its economic model, meanwhile realising that this interaction is improving Alexas’ skills. After a few interactions, Alexa asks the participant for permission to submit their image to the image recognition services of Microsoft, whose AI is being improved by every image sent. Alexa speaks out loud the outcomes that Microsofts’ AI analyses from the image.

Investigative Discussion Session

Saturday 10th of November, starting at 16:00 until 18:00. Free of charge.

In the context of the exhibition Data Production Labour series, the IoHO is pleased to invite you for an investigation into the hidden dynamics behind our role as data workers in Big Tech from a social, economic and military perspective.

With the help of three collaborators we will delve into the infrastructure enabling the translation from daily use of technology into drone strikes, the narratives shaping our technological decisions based on convenience, and what are the implications of Big Tech in replacing public services such as health and education.

¨The new role that humans have taken in society is obscured by promises imposed by Big Tech. Behind narratives like ‘free services’ or ‘users’, surveillance capitalism has implemented a new belief system. New methods of capital extraction, secret military exploitation and unrecognised labour operate under the seemingly innocuous daily use of technology.¨

Speakers:

Ksenia Ermoshina currently works at the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto. She is active as a network activist and researcher. Among other things, she examines the influence of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine on civil society organizations and the media, including digital security threats, Internet censorship and targeted surveillance. Their previous work in the Nextleap.eu research project examined the encryption of end-to-end messaging and email apps, with a focus on vulnerable groups of users, including activists from Syria and Egypt. Ksenia has a doctorate in sociology from the Mines ParisTech Center for Sociology of Innovation Paris and since 2016, she has been organizing inclusive, non-binary cryptoparties codenamed TransCyberian.

Luis Rodil-Fernández is an artist, researcher, teacher and hacker who taught himself computer programming by cracking computer games as a child. His work is concerned with the impact that technologies have on cognition and the human body. Through performances, installations and social games, he pursues a critical approach to human-computer interaction, as well as the ways in which humans communicate with other humans through technology. He sees these relationships ranging from the co-evolutionary to the fetishistic, and the ways in which the human and machinic configure each other as an important aspect of contemporary culture. He is currently teaching Critical Design at the Interaction Design department of the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem, The Netherlands.

Katrin Fritsch is a data and society researcher, writer, speaker and creative consultant based in Berlin. She investigates how technologies are socially constructed and culturally understood through imaginaries, narratives, and metaphors. In her latest research project, Katrin has interviewed machine learning engineers on their imaginaries of AI in order to examine how technological innovations are legitimised through imagination. Katrin is also co-founder of the agency Effi Beißt and has consulted netzpolitik.org on strategies for NGO’s and online-journalism to create awareness for digital human rights. She not only analyses current societal issues, but further interrogates how responses in the context of art and culture can generate a new understanding of digital inequalities.