This Autumn, ETHOS Lab invites interested students, researchers, and practitioners to take part in a series of events titled ‘Feminist Technoscience in Practice’. The events focus on practical application of digital and critical feminist methods.

The series consists of three events that feature talks by guest speakers followed by workshops that invite you to experiment with the methods that are presented during the talks. The events are rooted in technical practices but are tailored to accommodate any level of technical experience.

The first event takes place on October 24th at the IT University with our brilliant guest speaker Sofie Burgos-Thorsen, PhD & MSc Sociology, Researcher at TechnoAnthropology Lab. 

She will give a talk on The Urban Belonging Project followed by a workshop in which you get to experiment with data visualization methods.

TALK
Visualizing stuff differently: Putting Data Feminism into practice, and other learnings from the Urban Belonging Project.

WORKSHOP
The workshop invites participants to experiment with applying data feminist principles in practice when visualizing data about people and lived experiences, starting from the appreciation that the way we categorize and visualize data is a function of power that always co-produces visibilities and invisibilities. Learning from the Urban Belonging Project and its application of Data Feminism, the workshop prompts you to ask: What strategies of data visualization, or data embodiment, can we use to challenge power, subvert hierarchies, and decolonize data visualization practices?

Using a dataset from the Urban Belonging project as a jumping-off point, you will collaborate in the workshop on prototyping your own data feminist ways of visualizing data, and reflect together on; what (in)visibilities they create, and for whom they may be advantageous?

Format
How often have you seen gender represented as a pie chart? When visualizing data with software like Excel, D3, RawGraphs, or others, we are rarely able to think beyond the forms of representation that are ‘standardized’ within the software. To force us to challenge hegemonic software formats, the workshop will be analogue and asks you to work in groups, using workshop materials provided by Ethos Lab to prototype visualizations. Feel free, however, to bring a computer, so you can browse around in the Urban Belonging dataset, before you start prototyping vizzies together!

EVENT STRUCTURE
15:30-16:00: Talk by Sofie Burgos-Thorsen
16:00-17:00: Workshop
17:00-17.30: Wrap up & open discussion

RESSOURCES
Burgos-Thorsen, S. (2023): Crafting an Intersectional Gaze on Cities, and Three Other Reasons Why Urban Planning Needs Data Feminism. In ArchDaily.

Burgos-Thorsen, S., Niederer, S. & Madsen, A. K. (2023): What is an inclusive city? Reconfiguring participation in planning with geospatial photovoice to unpack experiences of urban belonging among marginalised communities. In Visual Studies.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2261897
D'Ignazio, C., Klein, L., Livio, M., Niederer, S., & Colombo, G. (2021). Feminist Data Practices: Conversations with Catherine D’Ignazio, Lauren Klein, and Maya Livio. Diseña, (19), 1-1.