Kommende Veranstaltungen
About | Program Highlights | Proposal Submission | Venue | Program | Contact
extended deadline for submission: 30 June
About the Autumn School
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), big data processing, and synthetic media has profoundly reshaped how culture is produced, made sense of, and experienced today. To ‘synthesize’ is to assemble, collate, and compile, blending heterogeneous components into something new. Where there is synthesis, there is power at play. Synthetic media—as exemplified by the oddly prophetic early speech synthesizer demos—carry the logic of analog automation into digital cultures where human and algorithmic interventions converge. Much of the research in this area—spanning subjects as diverse as augmented reality, avatars, and deepfakes—has revolved around ideas of simulation, focusing on the manipulation of data and content people produce and consume. Meanwhile, generative AI and deep learning models, while central to debates on artificiality, raise political questions as part of a wider social ecosystem where technology is perpetually reimagined, negotiated, and contested: What images and stories feed the datasets that contemporary AI models are trained on? Which imaginaries are reproduced through AI-driven media technologies and which remain latent? How do synthetic media transform relations of power and visibility, and what methods—perhaps equally synthetic—can we develop to analyze these transformations?
The five-day event at the University of Siegen—organized by the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centers Media of Cooperation and Transformations of the Popular together with the Center of Digital Narratives in Bergen, the Digital Culture and Communication Section of ECREA and the German National Research Data Infrastructure Consortium NFDI4Culture—explores the relationship between synthetic media and today’s imaginaries of culture and technology, which incorporate AI as an active participant. By “synthetic,” we refer not simply to the artificial but to how specific practices and ways of knowing take shape through human-machine co-creation. Imaginaries, in turn, reflect shared visions, values, and expectations—shaping not only what technologies do but how they are perceived and made actionable in everyday life.
The event opens with a one-day conference and moves into hands-on workshops and collaborative projects. With multiple opportunities for exchange across disciplines, we encourage especially early-career researchers and PhD students to present their ideas during the conference and join a project led by international facilitators and data designers. We invite submissions of short abstracts (max. 500 words) for presentations engaging with questions and provocations related—but not limited—to topics such as:
Critical data studies perspectives on AI: how data infrastructures, labeling, and curation shape the outputs we call “synthetic”; Cultural afterlives of training data: how racialized, gendered, or colonial imaginaries persist in synthetic media outputs; Methodological uses of GenAI: the politics that we buy in when repurposing AI as a method, from inherited bias to epistemic tensions; Synthetic personhood and likeness: exploring deepfakes, AI-generated avatars, and the power of (in)authenticity; Online cultures and platforms: how AI-generated content circulates across platforms—from memes and art to fan fiction, music, and poetry; Postcolonial and feminist critiques of AI: challenging universalist assumptions in generative models and interrogating whose knowledge is made (in)visible; Clichés, formulas, and repetition in GenAI outputs: how AI-generated stories and images rely on familiar tropes, visual styles, and narrative conventions; The aesthetics of noise in AI-generated content: repetition, glitch, randomness, and their role in producing or disrupting meaning; GPTs as infrastructural components: how generative pretrained transformers operate as configurable, customizable, and task-oriented agents embedded in platform infrastructures; Prompting and/as probing: prompting as a form of critical intervention, shaping co-authorship, sense-making, and research design; The ethics of training AI: from historical records and religious texts to indigenous cosmologies and oral traditions—what are the implications of using culturally sensitive knowledge to train generative models? Generative AI and Memory: synthetic media as a means of reimagining the past—through deepfake testimonies, interactive historical simulations, and other forms of computational memory-making; Generative AI in activist contexts: can AI be used for resistance or reimagining community—in the face of its environmental footprint and complicity in extractive systems?
Program highlights
The event blends three complementary formats:
Mix questions!
Monday, 8 September
Day one begins with a keynote by Jill Walker Rettberg and opens space for emerging questions—think of it as an idea hub. Accepted abstracts will be grouped into thematic sessions curated by the organising team. Presenters will be connected via email ahead of time to coordinate their contributions. Each presentation will be set to 10 minutes to allow ample time for discussion, collective thinking, and exchange. The emphasis is on dialogue, not polished conclusions.
Mix methods!
Tuesday, 9 September-Thursday, 11 September
The next three days—featuring a workshop by Gabriele De Seta and an artistic intervention by Ángeles Briones and DensityDesign Lab—are about exploring new methods—hands-on! We invite you to join a team of interdisciplinary scholars and data designers in probing new methodological combinations. Each of our project teams will present a research question alongside a specific method to be collaboratively explored. Participants will not only learn how to design prompts and work with AI-generated text and images but also how to critically account for genAI models as platform models. All projects draw on intersectional approaches, combining qualitative and quantitative data to explore the synthetic dimensions of AI agency—whether as content creator, noise generator, hallucinator, research collaborator, data annotator, or style imitator. Please bring your laptops. The project titles will be announced soon.
Synthesize!
Friday, 12 September
The final day is dedicated to sharing, reflecting, and synthesizing the questions, methods, and insights developed throughout the week. Project teams will present their collaborative processes, highlight key takeaways, and discuss how their ideas and approaches shifted through hands-on experimentation with methods.
Proposal Submission
Please submit your proposal (max. 500 words) outlining how your work aligns with the event’s theme by 30.06.2025, using this form. Please note that the number of participants will be limited to maintain focused and engaging discussions. All submissions will be peer-reviewed.
The event is free of charge, though attendees are responsible for arranging and covering their travel and accommodation in Siegen. Limited travel support is available (two to three stipends ranging from €500 to €700). Early-career researchers and PhD students are invited to apply; stipends will be awarded by the NFDI4Culture consortium based on the strength of the justification, particularly concerning critical ethical engagement with AI research data, as well as the distance and cost of travel. Short summaries of the presented work will be published on the NFDI4Culture website.
A certificate of participation will be issued for both the conference presentation and the hands-on workshop sessions.
Updated Timeline with extended deadline:
Submit your proposal by 30 June 2025.
Notification of acceptance by July 15 2025.
Registration by August 1 2025.
The Autumn School ist organized by SFB1187 (Media of Cooperation); SFB1472 (Transformations of the Popular); ECREA (Digital Culture and Communication Section); Center for Digital Narrative (University of Bergen); NFDI4Culture (Consortium for Research Data on Material and Immaterial Cultural Heritage)
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
- Antrag auf Assoziierung
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Publikation
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Veranstaltung
Die Vorstandssitzungen enthalten Berichte, Themenpunkte und Verschiedenes, die für alle SFB Mitglieder öffentlich sind. Personenbezogene Anträge und Finanzen sind nicht öffentlich und werden nach dem öffentlichen Teil besprochen. Webex-Links für Online-Teilnahmen werden am vorherigen Freitag verschickt. Teilnahme vor Ort ist möglich.
Digitale Protokolle des öffentlichen Teils werden über sciebo zur Verfügung gestellt.
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 228
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
- Antrag auf Assoziierung
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Publikation
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Veranstaltung
Die Vorstandssitzungen enthalten Berichte, Themenpunkte und Verschiedenes, die für alle SFB Mitglieder öffentlich sind. Personenbezogene Anträge und Finanzen sind nicht öffentlich und werden nach dem öffentlichen Teil besprochen. Webex-Links für Online-Teilnahmen werden am vorherigen Freitag verschickt. Teilnahme vor Ort ist möglich.
Digitale Protokolle des öffentlichen Teils werden über sciebo zur Verfügung gestellt.
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 228
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
more information to come
invited speakers:
Ellen Fricke (TU Dresden)
Jürgen Streeck (UT Austin)
Michel Lefèvre (Montpellier)
With contributions by Alexandre Métraux (Nancy)
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Links
Abstract Kontakt
Wie wird man Professorin und meistert den Spagat zwischen Beruf & Familie?
Bei diesem Vortrag mit anschließender Q&A haben Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen die Möglichkeit, Professorin Beatrice Schuchardt von der Universität Regensburg Fragen rund um das Thema „Wissenschaftliche Karriere“ und „Wissenschaftliche Karriere mit Kind(ern)“ zu stellen.
Beatrice Schuchardt wurde letztes Jahr auf eine W3-Professur für Spanische und Französische Kultur- und Literaturwissenschaft an der Universität Regensburg berufen. Zuvor war sie wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Romanischen Seminar der Universität Siegen.
Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an Wissenschaftlerinnen aller Karrierephase und ist ein Angebot von FraMeS - Frauenspezifisches Mentoring Siegen in Kooperation mit dem SFB 1187 "Medien der Kooperation" und dem SFB 1472 "Transformationen des Populären".
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
- Antrag auf Assoziierung
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Publikation
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Veranstaltung
Die Vorstandssitzungen enthalten Berichte, Themenpunkte und Verschiedenes, die für alle SFB Mitglieder öffentlich sind. Personenbezogene Anträge und Finanzen sind nicht öffentlich und werden nach dem öffentlichen Teil besprochen. Webex-Links für Online-Teilnahmen werden am vorherigen Freitag verschickt. Teilnahme vor Ort ist möglich.
Digitale Protokolle des öffentlichen Teils werden über sciebo zur Verfügung gestellt.
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 228
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
Anfeindungen in der Wissenschaftskommunikation?
Zum gezielten Umgang mit Hassrede und Wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit:
ein Workshop mit dem Unterstützungs- und Beratungsnetzwerk Scicomm-Support
Wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit und Hassrede gegen Wissenschafter*innen, Wissenschaftskommunikator*innen und wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen haben, nicht zuletzt durch die Corona-Pandemie, spürbar zugenommen. Doch wie kann man in der Wissenschaftskommunikation auf solche Angriffe reagieren, sich darauf vorbereiten und Unterstützung finden?
Dieser Workshop bietet Einblicke in das Themenfeld, stellt die Beratungs- und Unterstützungsangebote der nationalen Anlaufstelle Scicomm-Support vor, bietet Raum für Austausch und erste praktische Handlungsmöglichkeiten.
Scicomm-Support unterstützt und berät Wissenschaftler*innen und Wissenschaftskommunikator*innen bei Angriffen und unsachlichen Konflikten in der Wissenschaftskommunikation. Mehr Informationen über den Scicomm-Support sind online zu finden: www.scicomm-support.de.
Über die Veranstaltungsreihe
Die Reihe „Diversity Lunch“ ist eine Kooperation der SFBs „Medien der Kooperation“ und „Transformationen des Populären“ und lädt alle Mitglieder und Interessierten zu einem Austausch zu aktuellen Themen und Fragestellungen rund um Diversität in der Wissenschaft ein.
Eine Teilnahme ist online als auch in Präsenz im Herrengarten möglich. Im Anschluss an die Veranstaltung laden wir herzlich zu einem kleinen Imbiss/Lunch im Herrengarten (AH-A 208/209) ein!
Anmeldungen bitte bis zum 12.11. an Judith Münster: judith.muenster[ae]student.uni-siegen.de
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/218
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
- Antrag auf Assoziierung
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Publikation
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Veranstaltung
Die Vorstandssitzungen enthalten Berichte, Themenpunkte und Verschiedenes, die für alle SFB Mitglieder öffentlich sind. Personenbezogene Anträge und Finanzen sind nicht öffentlich und werden nach dem öffentlichen Teil besprochen. Webex-Links für Online-Teilnahmen werden am vorherigen Freitag verschickt. Teilnahme vor Ort ist möglich.
Digitale Protokolle des öffentlichen Teils werden über sciebo zur Verfügung gestellt.
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 228
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
- Antrag auf Assoziierung
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Publikation
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Veranstaltung
Die Vorstandssitzungen enthalten Berichte, Themenpunkte und Verschiedenes, die für alle SFB Mitglieder öffentlich sind. Personenbezogene Anträge und Finanzen sind nicht öffentlich und werden nach dem öffentlichen Teil besprochen. Webex-Links für Online-Teilnahmen werden am vorherigen Freitag verschickt. Teilnahme vor Ort ist möglich.
Digitale Protokolle des öffentlichen Teils werden über sciebo zur Verfügung gestellt.
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 228
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
Archiv Veranstaltungen
|
Time |
Monday, 21 July 2025 |
|
10:30 – 11:00 |
Arrival & Welcome |
|
11:00 – 11:50 |
Susanne Förster (remote) |
|
11:50 – 12:00 |
Coffee break |
|
12:00 – 12:50 |
Max Kanderske |
|
12:50 – 14:00 |
Lunch break: Food Court (Mensa US) |
|
14:00 – 14:50 |
Niklas Strüver (remote) |
|
14:50 – 15:00 |
Coffee break |
|
15:00 – 15:50 |
Johanna Hiebl (remote) |
|
15:50 – 16:00 |
Coffee break |
|
16:00 – 16:50 |
Michael Brillka |
|
16:50 – 17:00 |
Coffee break |
|
17:00 – 17:50 |
Hendrik Bender |
|
18:30 |
Joint Dinner (venue t.b.a.) |
|
Time |
Tuesday, 22 July 2025 |
|
09:00 – 09:50 |
Daniela van Geenen (remote) |
|
09:50 – 10:00 |
Coffee break |
|
10:00 – 10:50 |
Hoa Mai Trần |
|
10:50 – 11:00 |
Coffee break |
|
11:00 – 11:50 |
Vesna Schierbaum (remote) |
|
11:50 – 12:00 |
Coffee break |
|
12:00 – 12:50 |
Sergei Pashakin |
|
12:50 – 14:00 |
Lunch break: Food Court (Mensa US) |
|
14:00 – 14:50 |
Akib Shahriar Khan |
|
14:50 – 15:00 |
Coffee break |
|
15:00 – 15:30 |
Final discussions, ideas for next time etc. |
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
This talk will advocate for decomputing as a means to unstitch the shroud of AI which is being draped over our collective futures. It will identify scale as the core logic of contemporary datafication, and the total mobilisation of human and natural resources as its authoritarian consequence. The seams of AI are already visible in its shoddy emulations and violent preemptions, and what peers back through the gaps are forms of eugenic solutionism.
Decomputing acknowledges that even the tokenistic restraints of the liberal rules-based order and its regulatory frameworks have little traction in the current moment. It draws instead on concepts from degrowth and systemic transformation to challenge the inevitability of AI’s accelerationism. Decomputing seeks to apply the intentional seamfulness of conviviality through mechanisms such as the matrix of convivial technology, while recognising that this will require the counter-power of collectively organised resistance.
Decomputing is an assembly point for all those drawn into conflict with AI’s technopolitics, such as environmental, feminist and decolonical social movements. In particular, it seeks to develop situated forms of social decision-making that disable future attempts at a computationally-assisted coup d’etat.
Dan McQuillan is a Lecturer in Creative and Social Computing. He has a degree in Physics from Oxford and a PhD in Experimental Particle Physics from Imperial College, London. After his PhD he was a support worker for people with learning disabilities and volunteered as a mental health advocate, informing people in psychiatric detention about their rights. In the early days of the world wide web, he started a pioneering website to provide translated information for asylum seekers and refugees. When open source hardware sensors started appearing he co-founded a citizen science project in Kosovo, supporting politically excluded young people to measure pollution levels and get the issue of air quality onto their national agenda. After a stint working in the NHS he joined Amnesty International and created their first digital directorate. Dan has been involved in many grassroots social movements such as the campaign against the Poll Tax in the UK, and in environmental activism. He was part of the international movement in Genoa in 2001 which was protesting against the G8 and calling for an alternative globalisation that included justice for both people and planet. During the first wave of Covid-19 he helped to start a local mutual aid group where he lives in North London. Dan recently authored Resisting AI—An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence.
Lecture Series
“Unstitching Datafication”
Summer 2025
#1 Luddite Futures
Wed, 16.04.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
Gavin Mueller (University of Amsterdam) ➞
#2 Queer Tactics of Opacity: Resisting Public Visibility and Identification on Sexual Social Media Platforms
Wed, 07.05.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
Jenny Sundén (Södertörn University Stockholm) ➞
#3 De/Tangling Resolution
Wed, 14.05.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
Rosa Menkman (HEAD Genève) ➞
#4 Against ‘Method’ or How to Assume a ‘Differend’
Wed, 21.05.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
David Gauthier (Utrecht University) ➞
#5 Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back
Wed, 28.05.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
Ulises A. Mejias (SUNY Oswego) ➞
#6 Glitchy Vignettes From Agricultural Repair Shops
Wed, 18.06.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
Alina Gombert (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a. M.) ➞
#7 Affects Beyond Our Technological Desires
Wed, 02.07.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss (HKW Berlin) ➞
#8 Decomputing as Resistance
Wed, 16.07.25 | 2.15-3.45 PM | Hybrid
Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths, University of London) ➞
About the lecture series
In the lecture series Unstitching Datafication, artists, activists, and scholars explore how digital technologies can be un- and re-stitched by working on their seams. Moving beyond the destructive aspect inherent to unstitching seams and networks, they ask how social and economic relations have been and can be reconfigured by technology in the first place and be deconstructed and transformed through practices of hacking, queering, countering, and resisting datafication and data colonialism – be it through technical manipulations, artistic interventions, or activist action. Inspired by the seam ripper figure and historical forms of technological resistance, the lecture series shows how artists, activists, and scholars work along the edges and boundaries of digital systems. more ➞
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
- Antrag auf Assoziierung
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Publikation
- Antrag auf Förderung einer Veranstaltung
Die Vorstandssitzungen enthalten Berichte, Themenpunkte und Verschiedenes, die für alle SFB Mitglieder öffentlich sind. Personenbezogene Anträge und Finanzen sind nicht öffentlich und werden nach dem öffentlichen Teil besprochen. Webex-Links für Online-Teilnahmen werden am vorherigen Freitag verschickt. Teilnahme vor Ort ist möglich.
Digitale Protokolle des öffentlichen Teils werden über sciebo zur Verfügung gestellt.
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 228
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen
Kontakt
more information coming soon
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
Herrengarten 3
AH-A 217/18
57072 Siegen
lead by Dr. Annette Klinkert (city2science)
Part #4: Stakeholder Engagement and Engagement Formats
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Basic understandings of research with and for society
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From information to collaboration: Ways to engage multiple publics with research
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Develop concepts and initial strategies for research projects
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Learn how to plan strategic communication and engagement activities related to research
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Concrete tools to clearly communicate research results to the respective target groups and potential stakeholders
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Innovative approaches and formats for science communication including ideas for creative event formats
Part #4 will take place on-site in Siegen. There will no hybrid set-up.
[acc_readmore]
About the Science Communication & Public Engagement Series #1-4
Openness, transparency and the ability to communicate with diverse audiences inside and outside academia are key competences in 21st century research and innovation. Transferrable skills in the areas of science communication and public engagement are increasingly relevant for academic and non-academic career paths, as well as for the acquisition of national and international funding. The interdisciplinary and interactive training series invites researchers to gain practical skills in science communication and public engagement. The course will empower researchers via a mix of input, reflections and practical sessions. A major goal of the training will be to enable participants to develop a communication plan related to (their individual) research topics and to communicate their key messages to diverse audiences in a clear and effective way.
All parts will be lead by city2science.
Part #1: Start the Dialogue, Open Up Science! – Introduction to Science Communication and Public Engagement
Part #2: Open Science and Open Innovation in Science Communication
Part #3: Communication Strategies and Pathways to Impact
Part #4: Stakeholder Engagement and Engagement Formats
Part #1-3 will take place only online on Webex (there will no hybrid set-up), whereas the last part #4 will take place on-site in Siegen in AH-A 217/18.
Workshop Language is English.
About city2science
city2science supports strategic alliances between city and campus and develops innovative formats of science communication.
city2science offers individual consulting services for universities and research institutions as well as cities, municipalities and regions, including consulting and application development, especially in European funding programs
city2science has internationally recognized expertise in the theory and practice of science communication and public engagement. Based on many years of experience in theoretical reflection as well as in the practical implementation of innovative strategies and formats of science communication, city2science offers a comprehensive range of services in this permanently evolving future field.
About Dr. Annette Klinkert
Dr. Annette Klinkert received her PHD in American literature at Albert Ludwigs-University in Freiburg. Before starting city2science in 2012 Annette Klinkert worked within the city marketing company Bielefeld Marketing GmbH as project manager and head of the departments City Management, Event Management, and the Science Office. She initiated and coordinated a large number of innovative international science communication formats and is the director of the European Science Engagement Association (EUSEA). She is regularly invited as lecturer and workshop-leader at national and international Science Communication conferences.
Veranstaltungsort
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen