International Conference
“Scaling Sensing – Sensing Publics: Landscapes, and Borders, Homes and Bodies”

Saadia Mirza (University of Chicago/ Sciences Po, Paris)

More than an instinct or reflex, sensing is a situated and experiential practice that exposes the many aesthetic and political parameters of human consciousness. The concept of landscape unravels a similar phenomenon – a view from somewhere that is constructed, discovered, and situated rather than pre-existing (Berque 2013, Karatani 1993). In geography, the cartographic classifications of landscape and its topology, terrain, topography, and territory are deeply tied to the evolution of ‘sensing’ as a technique and a method. Whether we speak of Humboldt’s use of the cyanometer for qualifying the exact blueness of the sky in the late 1700s, or the multispectral sensors of the 21st century to detect soil composition, knowledge of landscape has always relied on sensibilities – or sense-abilities – that are at once material and discursive. Moreover, these practices are embedded in historical, political, and cultural contexts with their own regimes of truth and judgment. However, these techniques and tools of sensing also reveal an ever more elusive idea of landscape where matter and meaning are as indistinguishable as the human and nonhuman agents that constitute it (Mirza 2023). In this keynote, I address how vibrations, resonances, bandwidths, and frequencies in more-than-human sensing systems create fluid impressions of materiality, boundaries, borders, terrain, and topography, expanding the consciousness of landscape. Since the declassification of remotely sensed data in the 1990s, various models of a single landscape have become possible, with sensors that exceed the limits of the human sensorium. Whether tracing historical migration routes, modeling new borders, simulating archaeological sites, or rendering the changing shape of coastlines, these advanced sensing practices offer new ways to re-map and rephrase the complex web of human-environment relations. I argue that by creating new sensory thresholds, these practices foster emergent rationalities that profoundly impact the social, political, and cultural understanding of the concept of landscape.

Dominik Schrey (University of Siegen)

In 1911, Georg Simmel described the high-Alpine realm of the glaciers as “the absolutely ‘unhistorical’ landscape” where all “associations with the human fate, which comes into being and passes away, are broken off, associations which in some way or other accompany all other landscapes.” However, when Simmel wrote these lines, the Alpine glaciers were already “envirotechnical landscapes” (Pritchard, 2011), making it difficult to draw a strict line between natural features and anthropogenic influences. Not only are they embedded in tourism infrastructure, energy production, and border regimes, but in the 19th century, the – already retreating – ice masses also became “sensing landscapes” that served as scientific indicators of environmental changes. Around 1900, for example, geologists discussed glaciers as “gigantic measuring instruments of nature’s own making” (Hagenbach, 1900), although this notion ultimately remained vague (Hupfer, 2019). This paper shows that the history of glaciology is largely about refining these “first-degree sensors” (Fuller/Weizman, 2021) using a variety of “second-degree” sensing practices (such as triangulation milestones, psychrometers, thermometrographs, and precipitation gauges), thereby reinventing the glaciers as laboratories of climate change. Using historical and contemporary examples, I explore glaciological sensing practices and their data, focusing on collaborative efforts between scientists and artists to shape public understanding of climate change.

Kathrin Friedrich (University of Bonn) 

Farming, and especially livestock farming, is a major factor in the transformation of landscapes, with a long history of infrastructuring land, natural resources, and human-animal interactions, through various types of physical barriers and fences. Nowadays, the fencing of livestock herds, such as cattle or goats, increasingly relies on sensor technologies, through virtual fencing. This remote, semi-automated practice uses GPS data, dedicated applications, and animal-attached sensors, forming a closed-loop sensing network to control livestock in various types of grazing areas. Rather than physically infrastructuring landscapes, virtual fencing relies on „digital landscapes,“ such as Google Maps, and is promoted as more flexible, less resource-intensive, and more sustainable than traditional fencing practices. This paper explores the promises of virtual fencing and their implications for landscape infrastructuring. By tracing examples of sensing infrastructures and fencing applications, it addresses how these media practices adapt landscapes for livestock farming and influence human and more-than-human sensing at various levels.

Akib Shahriar Khan (University of Siegen)

This paper explores the “landscape” through the lens of city streets. Streets and roads, as human-made landscapes, play a crucial role in shaping not only the flow of traffic but also the social dynamics within urban environments. The design and layout of urban landscapes can foster safety, accessibility, and community engagement or, conversely, contribute to congestion and conflict. For instance, well-designed streets with dedicated bike lanes, wide sidewalks, and clearly marked crosswalks encourage harmonious interactions among pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists, fostering a sense of shared space and mutual respect. With the rise of sensor technologies, wearable devices, automated vehicles, and smart infrastructures, a new era of sensing the urban landscape has begun. These technologies are creating a dynamic and responsive urban environment where people can collect data and sense and interact with their surroundings and fellow users. While existing research prioritizes the performance and safety of urban sensor technologies, their impact on social dynamics and traffic conditions remains underexplored. This paper presents a preliminary study that analyzes how the design and integration of sensor technologies affect human behavior on city streets and roads. By examining these interactions, we aim to shed light on the interplay between sensor technology, environmental design, social dynamics, and the perception and management of the urban landscape.

Opening keynote

David Howes, Concordia University, Montréal.

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Mathias Funk (Eindhoven University of Technology)

When we were promised smart homes that sounded like a bright future solving for convenience, loneliness, elderly care, safety, democratization, and more. Alas, the homes are not smart, but full of things now. In this talk, we will take a journey from the early visions of home IoT to thing-centered design approaches and design research on the smart home. We will look beyond sensing and ubiquitous data collection, and develop a renewed vision of what an intelligence-augmented Everyday could be.

Gunnar Stevens (Universität Siegen/ Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg)

The private space is crucial for the well-being and freedom of the individual. Domestic privacy is particularly protected by law, which applies above all to state interference and commercial surveillance attempts. Usable Security helps users protect their privacy from these attempts. Yet, less is known about privacy norms and practices within the home. The spectrum of privacy issues within households is broad and diverse, ranging from everyday behaviors like password sharing to more concerning issues such as technology abuse and cyber-stalking. The talk aims to shed light on this overlooked topic, using a design lens on the complexities and nuances of privacy within the home.

Tim Moritz Hector & Niklas Strüver (Universität Siegen)

During the setup of voice assistants like Alexa or Siri in a domestic context, the assistants ask several questions about their future users like how many household members are there and which bank, music-streaming, Amazon, or Google account to connect. Thus, users are often faced with the task of defining their perceived living situation (e.g. family, shared flat) and fitting it into the predetermined options. In this process, digital technologies are adapted to households, and vice-versa, as users attempt to (infra-)structurate their smart home. 

The inquiry about the living arrangement can be interpreted as a moment of calling into question the seldom debated complex dynamics of ‘home’ and notions about (shared) perceptions within it. Based on recordings of the setup processes of smart speakers and an accompanying interview study, we examine how different users perceive, discuss, and define their (smart) living arrangements. We investigate how users reflect on their living situation based on these notions and how they attempt to find infrastructural workarounds (e.g. regarding privacy concerns) to make their arrangements fit while balancing the sensation of remaining in charge of shaping their daily life infrastructure.

Tanja Aal & Dennis Kirschsieper (Universität Siegen)

Telecare and telemedicine applications represent a special case of sensor-based smart home technologies, as intimate areas of the home and even the body are affected and large amounts of sensitive data are generated. In our presentation, we discuss desirable and less desirable scenarios of telecare and telemedicine in the private home based on expert interviews with professional caregivers, care scientists, and technology developers. In future scenarios, we focus firstly on the topics of autonomy and privacy, as understanding the technology and controlling data flows can be problematic, especially for older users. Secondly, we address the developments towards more community-based care in Germany and the connections between sensor technology in the private home and the local social environment, i.e. nursing services, doctor’s offices, neighbors, and the entire community in a broad sense.