Sensing, Sense Making and the Arts

All lectures take place in Cologne and also online.

This Lecture Series explores dynamics of sensing and sense making, and thus takes up a topic that is at the center of interdisciplinary work at the CRC “Media of Cooperation” (Siegen/Cologne). At the same time, it introduces the research of the CRC to researchers at the University of Cologne and various international working groups in and on the Mediterranean by using the well-established “60 Minutes” in Ethnography, Theory, Anthropology as a forum.

The increasing spread of sensor technologies and the equipping of smart devices with sensors restructures forms of perception, sensing and knowledge making. Sensors measure movements in the city, record air quality, temperatures and energy consumption, control production and logistics processes in interaction with algorithms and learning systems, track the behavior and well-being of people, recognize people in images and video recordings or re-organize (digital) terrains. Sensor data, their collection, analysis, and integration with other data formats, and their interaction with various forms of practice are constitutive not only of sensing, but also of sense making.

In this series of talks, we are interested in forms of sensing and sense making vis-à-vis major dynamics of socio-political and environmental crises in and beyond the Mediterranean, in particular (1) mobility and related border regimes, (2) growing environmental crises and their (non)management, and (3) forms of social mobilization (activism) and their control. All three areas are characterized by specific forms of socio-technical sensing and the engagement with it – sense making, both distributed among multiple actors, including humans, machines, and the environment itself. Sensor media are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and come with a number of ethical and political challenges – such as the erosion of privacy, new forms of surveillance, and socio-technical proliferation of prejudices and various forms of bias. Often they are perceived as both – as drivers of, but also as possible solutions for different forms of social, political, technical and environmental crises.

In this lecture series, Sensing and Sense Making will be explored praxeologically – and thus in its various forms and formats. Part I will investigate forms of sense making in the context of deadly borders regimes, in hazardous environments and as part of social activism. Part II will look at the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic research and public interventions to engage with situations of crises and collaborative knowledge production.

Organized by Nina ter Laan, Carla Tiefenbacher and Martin Zillinger for the CRC “Media of Cooperation” Siegen/Cologne and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (DoSCA), University of Cologne.

Programm | Anmeldung | Veranstaltungsort

PROGRAMM

Donnerstag, 30. November 2023

Freitag, 1. Dezember 2023

ORGANISATORISCHE HINWEISE
Wir bitten um Anmeldung zur Tagung bis zum 20. November 2023 an Philipp Meinert (philipp.meinert[æt]student.uni-siegen.de).

Presentation of the current
Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 29 „Test“

Research Forum of the
CRC1187 Media of Cooperation

As part of the research forum of the CRC 1187 Media of Cooperation, we will present the current ZfM 29 “Test” on November 29. Our guests are contributors to the thematic focus: Oliver Heise, David Bucheli, Gabriele Schabacher, Sophie Spallinger, Daniela Holzer and Philippe Sormani. The editors Sebastian Gießmann and Carolin Gerlitz will introduce the focus topic before individual contributions and their development process are discussed and presented by the authors. We invite all interested parties to a lively exchange about media testing practices, habits and histories, especially under the conditions of artificial intelligence.

This issue asks how media and tests are mutually constituted, paying special attention to the politics of testing. We propose to understand tests as open situations in which socio-technical evaluations and decisions are accomplished either along established standards, or along emerging evaluative criteria. We propose an account of testing that is informed by media and cultural studies: Within the micro-decisions of distributed and distributive testing, the Social itself is put to the test. The contributions gathered in this issue emphasise that there is no test without media – and no medium without a test.

ZfM 29 „Test“: https://zfmedienwissenschaft.de/heft/archiv/29-22023-test

Munira Khayyat (NYU Abu Dhabi): Sensing and Sensemaking in– Lebanon: A landscape of War

All lectures take place in Cologne and also online.

This Lecture Series explores dynamics of sensing and sense making, and thus takes up a topic that is at the center of interdisciplinary work at the CRC “Media of Cooperation” (Siegen/Cologne). At the same time, it introduces the research of the CRC to researchers at the University of Cologne and various international working groups in and on the Mediterranean by using the well-established “60 Minutes” in Ethnography, Theory, Anthropology as a forum.

The increasing spread of sensor technologies and the equipping of smart devices with sensors restructures forms of perception, sensing and knowledge making. Sensors measure movements in the city, record air quality, temperatures and energy consumption, control production and logistics processes in interaction with algorithms and learning systems, track the behavior and well-being of people, recognize people in images and video recordings or re-organize (digital) terrains. Sensor data, their collection, analysis, and integration with other data formats, and their interaction with various forms of practice are constitutive not only of sensing, but also of sense making.

In this series of talks, we are interested in forms of sensing and sense making vis-à-vis major dynamics of socio-political and environmental crises in and beyond the Mediterranean, in particular (1) mobility and related border regimes, (2) growing environmental crises and their (non)management, and (3) forms of social mobilization (activism) and their control. All three areas are characterized by specific forms of socio-technical sensing and the engagement with it – sense making, both distributed among multiple actors, including humans, machines, and the environment itself. Sensor media are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and come with a number of ethical and political challenges – such as the erosion of privacy, new forms of surveillance, and socio-technical proliferation of prejudices and various forms of bias. Often they are perceived as both – as drivers of, but also as possible solutions for different forms of social, political, technical and environmental crises.

In this lecture series, Sensing and Sense Making will be explored praxeologically – and thus in its various forms and formats. Part I will investigate forms of sense making in the context of deadly borders regimes, in hazardous environments and as part of social activism. Part II will look at the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic research and public interventions to engage with situations of crises and collaborative knowledge production.

Organized by Nina ter Laan, Carla Tiefenbacher and Martin Zillinger for the CRC “Media of Cooperation” Siegen/Cologne and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (DoSCA), University of Cologne.

Köln-Siegener Meisterklasse Medienethnographie

Die Nutzung audiovisueller Medien hat in der Geschichte ethnographischer Forschungsansätze eine immer stärker aufgefächerte methodische Diskussion nach sich gezogen. Daraus haben sich innovative Impulse für die wechselseitigen Kooperationsverhältnisse ergeben, die zwischen den ethnographisch Forschenden, den an der Forschung Teilnehmenden und dem Publikum ethnographischer Forschungsergebnisse, sowie den unterschiedlich involvierten Medien entstehen. In der Köln-Siegener Meisterklasse für Medienethnographie werden führende Vertreter:innen der visuellen Ethnologie ihre Arbeiten und Forschungsansätze vorstellen und mit den Teilnehmer:innen das je eigene Forschungsmaterial diskutieren.

In Bildern dokumentarisch erzählen
Für alle, die Bildern und beobachtenden Szenen mehr Gewicht in ihren Dokumentarfilmen geben wollen. Ein praktischer Workshop.

Teil 1:
Freitag (03.11.) – von 14:00 bis 19:15 im Gebäude 106, Raum S26
Samstag (04.11.)  – von 09:00 bis 15:30 im Gebäude 103, Raum S69

Teil 2:
Freitag (17.11.) – von 14:00 bis 19.15 Uhr im Gebäude 106, Raum S26
Samstag (18.11.) – von 09:00 bis 15.30 Uhr im Gebäude 103, Raum S69

Voraussetzungen: Teilnahme an allen Terminen; keine Vorkenntnisse erforderlich, eigener Laptop erforderlich, eigene Kamera (z.B. Smartphone/Kompaktkamera) von Vorteil, eigene  Filmidee möglich aber nicht notwendig (bitte bei der Anmeldung angeben)

Teilnahme: 15 Personen max.

Inhalt
Was sind Bilder? Und wie nehme ich Videos/Sequenzen auf, die mit Bildern erzählen? In diesem Workshop geht es um das Sehen, das genaue Hinschauen, das Wahrnehmen von Stimmungen und das bildliche Aufnehmen dieser mit der Videokamera. Praktische Übungen und theoretische Überlegungen werden sich abwechseln. Wir sprechen über filmische Haltungen, über mögliches Material jenseits von talking heads und Interviews, und über Storytelling. Wie verorte ich mich im Film? Wie funktionieren Reportagen? Wie arbeiten künstlerische Dokumentarfilme? Zusammen werden wir kurze Szenen aufnehmen: Wie werden Handlungen bildlich aufgelöst? Worauf muss ich achten? Was sind die besonderen Herausforderungen des “beobachtenden Drehens” (fly-on-the-wall-Ansatz)?Zum Abschluss wollen wir verschiedene Erzählstrukturen anschauen: Wie unterscheiden sie sich? Was transportieren sie? Und was bedeutet es für die Bilder/Sequenzen, die ich aufnehme?

Wenn Teilnehmende eine eigene Filmidee haben, die sie umsetzen möchten, können sie die sehr gerne einbringen. Im Laufe des Workshops werde ich dann versuchen, praktische Tipps und Tricks zu geben.

Zur Person
Sebastian Eschenbach hat visuelle Anthropologie studiert und arbeitet seit 25 Jahren als freiberuflicher Dokumentarfilmer. Seine Arbeiten reichen von experimentellen Dokumentarfilmen über konventionelle TV Dokumentationen bis hin zu künstlerischen Dokumentarfilmen. Sein letzter Film “Von Wurzeln, Gärten und anderen Früchten. Mit Migrant*innen durch das Gartenjahr” ist 2022 erschienen (DE, 70’).

Juan Pablo Aris Escarcena (Sevilla): Sensing and Sensemaking across Borders – Spain/Morocco: Borderscapes & humanitarian detention: Conflict & cooperation between securitarian and humanitarian actors.

All lectures take place in Cologne and also online.

This Lecture Series explores dynamics of sensing and sense making, and thus takes up a topic that is at the center of interdisciplinary work at the CRC “Media of Cooperation” (Siegen/Cologne). At the same time, it introduces the research of the CRC to researchers at the University of Cologne and various international working groups in and on the Mediterranean by using the well-established “60 Minutes” in Ethnography, Theory, Anthropology as a forum.

The increasing spread of sensor technologies and the equipping of smart devices with sensors restructures forms of perception, sensing and knowledge making. Sensors measure movements in the city, record air quality, temperatures and energy consumption, control production and logistics processes in interaction with algorithms and learning systems, track the behavior and well-being of people, recognize people in images and video recordings or re-organize (digital) terrains. Sensor data, their collection, analysis, and integration with other data formats, and their interaction with various forms of practice are constitutive not only of sensing, but also of sense making.

In this series of talks, we are interested in forms of sensing and sense making vis-à-vis major dynamics of socio-political and environmental crises in and beyond the Mediterranean, in particular (1) mobility and related border regimes, (2) growing environmental crises and their (non)management, and (3) forms of social mobilization (activism) and their control. All three areas are characterized by specific forms of socio-technical sensing and the engagement with it – sense making, both distributed among multiple actors, including humans, machines, and the environment itself. Sensor media are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and come with a number of ethical and political challenges – such as the erosion of privacy, new forms of surveillance, and socio-technical proliferation of prejudices and various forms of bias. Often they are perceived as both – as drivers of, but also as possible solutions for different forms of social, political, technical and environmental crises.

In this lecture series, Sensing and Sense Making will be explored praxeologically – and thus in its various forms and formats. Part I will investigate forms of sense making in the context of deadly borders regimes, in hazardous environments and as part of social activism. Part II will look at the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic research and public interventions to engage with situations of crises and collaborative knowledge production.

Organized by Nina ter Laan, Carla Tiefenbacher and Martin Zillinger for the CRC “Media of Cooperation” Siegen/Cologne and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (DoSCA), University of Cologne.

Juan Pablo Aris Escarcena (Sevilla): Film Screening and Discussion “Solidarity Crime”

Filmscreening of the Documentary “Solidarity Crime” followed by an audience discussion.
More information here: https://rausgegangen.de/en/events/solidarity-crime-0/

All lectures take place in Cologne and also online.

This Lecture Series explores dynamics of sensing and sense making, and thus takes up a topic that is at the center of interdisciplinary work at the CRC “Media of Cooperation” (Siegen/Cologne). At the same time, it introduces the research of the CRC to researchers at the University of Cologne and various international working groups in and on the Mediterranean by using the well-established “60 Minutes” in Ethnography, Theory, Anthropology as a forum.

The increasing spread of sensor technologies and the equipping of smart devices with sensors restructures forms of perception, sensing and knowledge making. Sensors measure movements in the city, record air quality, temperatures and energy consumption, control production and logistics processes in interaction with algorithms and learning systems, track the behavior and well-being of people, recognize people in images and video recordings or re-organize (digital) terrains. Sensor data, their collection, analysis, and integration with other data formats, and their interaction with various forms of practice are constitutive not only of sensing, but also of sense making.

In this series of talks, we are interested in forms of sensing and sense making vis-à-vis major dynamics of socio-political and environmental crises in and beyond the Mediterranean, in particular (1) mobility and related border regimes, (2) growing environmental crises and their (non)management, and (3) forms of social mobilization (activism) and their control. All three areas are characterized by specific forms of socio-technical sensing and the engagement with it – sense making, both distributed among multiple actors, including humans, machines, and the environment itself. Sensor media are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and come with a number of ethical and political challenges – such as the erosion of privacy, new forms of surveillance, and socio-technical proliferation of prejudices and various forms of bias. Often they are perceived as both – as drivers of, but also as possible solutions for different forms of social, political, technical and environmental crises.

In this lecture series, Sensing and Sense Making will be explored praxeologically – and thus in its various forms and formats. Part I will investigate forms of sense making in the context of deadly borders regimes, in hazardous environments and as part of social activism. Part II will look at the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic research and public interventions to engage with situations of crises and collaborative knowledge production.

Organized by Nina ter Laan, Carla Tiefenbacher and Martin Zillinger for the CRC “Media of Cooperation” Siegen/Cologne and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (DoSCA), University of Cologne.

Herbsttagung der DGS Sektion Soziologie des Körpers und des Sports in Kooperation mit dem SFB-1187 „Medien der Kooperation“

Join via Webex: 
https://uni-siegen.webex.com/uni-siegen/j.php?MTID=mc2c6918abfcc204f734d16ad39778f4b

Programm

Donnerstag, 09.11.2023

Freitag, 10.11.2023

09:00 – 09:30 Uhr: Get together

Call for Papers

Diverse Körperlichkeit(en) von Sensormedien?
Situierung, Differenzierung, Standardisierung

Herbsttagung
der DGS Sektion Soziologie des Körpers und des Sports
(in Kooperation mit dem SFB-1187 „Medien der Kooperation“)
Universität Siegen, 09. – 10.11.2023

Körperliche Wahrnehmungen, Praktiken und Handlungen werden zunehmend durch Technologien und digitale Medien vermittelt und in besonderer Weise durch diese (mit-) hervorgebracht. Viele Untersuchungen, die im Zuge der Digitalisierungs- und Mediatisierungsschübe der vergangenen Jahrzehnte und Jahre (pandemiebedingte Formen der digitalen Kommunikation, KI-Systeme als Teil von Entscheidungsprozessen, Chat GPT, neue Sensormedien, datenintensive Umwelten und digitale Infrastrukturen im urbanen oder architektonisch gestalteten Raum, etc.) entstanden sind, zeigten auf, wie Medien, Applikationen oder Hoch-Technologien auf verschiedene Sinne(smodalitäten) einwirken und infolgedessen Körperlichkeit(en) verändern, neujustieren oder auch irritieren. Dabei wird vielfach deutlich, dass bereits ohnehin marginalisierte Personengruppen und ihre Interaktions- und Wissensformen im Alltag durch die Produktion und Handhabung von neuen Digitaltechnologien nicht nur gestärkt, sondern in der Tendenz weiterhin – und z.T. auf neue Weise – ausgehend von ihrer Körperlichkeit ausgegrenzt, stigmatisiert und diskriminiert werden. „Diverse Körperlichkeit(en)“ soll(en) in diesem Zusammenhang auf der Herbsttagung als eine gemeinsame, möglichst weite Heuristik für körpersoziologische Perspektiven dienen, die die mithin digitale und technisch induzierte Konstruktion von körperlichen Differenzen und Diversität im Zusammenhang mit historischen und neu entstehenden sozialen Ungleichheiten, Vulnerabilitäten und Exklusionsmechanismen fassen können.

Ein aufschlussreicher Gegenstand für die Erforschung der gegenwärtigen Wechselwirkungen von diversen Körperlichkeiten und digitalen Medien bildet die Schnittstelle verkörperter Sensormedien. Darunter lassen sich zunächst all jene Medien und Technologien fassen, die körperliche Sinne in ihrer Wirk- und Wahrnehmungsqualität erweitern, vermitteln oder konstituieren. Dabei stellt sich die übergreifende Frage, wie Sensormedien diverse Körperlichkeiten herausfordern, wenn Körper z.T. ermächtigt, aber auch mit neuen – häufig nicht-intendierten – Vulnerabilitäten, Effekten, Reibungen, Problemen und Folgen konfrontiert oder gänzlich exkludiert werden. Klärungsbedürftig ist in dem Zusammenhang nicht nur, wie sich Sensormedien in Körper einschreiben und wie sie alltäglich verkörpert werden, sondern bereits vorgeschaltet, welche z.T. standardisierten Körpervorstellungen und Körpertechniken, bzw. Praktiken und spezifische Wissensformen in Sensormedien inskribiert sind. Im situierten und multisensorischen Zusammenspiel von dem, was gesehen, getastet, geschmeckt, gehört oder in der Bewegung erfahren werden kann, stellen sich somit die Fragen, wie sowohl Körper als auch Sensormedien in Praktiken, Handlungen und Interaktionen hervorgebracht werden und wie Wahrnehmungen durch Technologien, Erfahrung und Wissen vermittelt und sozial konstituiert werden.

Diskutieren möchten wir folglich Fragestellungen nach der (sozialen) Wahrnehmung und alltäglichen praktischen Verkörperung von in Körpern, Alltagsgegenständen, Technologien und urbanen Infrastrukturen oder Architekturen verbauten Sensoren. Ein Zugang zu Sensormedien lässt sich aus einer körpersoziologischen Perspektive – auch im Anschluss an Phänomenologie, (Feminist) STS, Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie, Human Computer Design oder Critical Data Studies – fruchtbar an die immer noch aktuellen Diskussionen um die Bedeutung der sozialen, kulturellen und materiellen Dimension von Sinnlichkeit anschließen. Diskussionen, die mit Perspektiven auf Einzel-Sinne und deren Hierarchisierung brechen und mit Multisensorialität das komplexe, historische und soziale Zusammenspiel zum Gegenstand machen. Einen weiteren Zugang bilden aktuelle Debatten um soziale Diskriminierung – wie sie bspw. auch in sozialen Bewegungen, wie LGBTIQ+, PoC oder Crip-Movement virulent werden – sowie situierte und intersektionale Perspektiven, die u. a. darauf abzielen, körperliche Differenzen und damit einhergehende Differenzierungsprozesse theoretisch wie empirisch fassen zu können. Entsprechend laden wir besonders dazu ein an diverse, queere, anti-rassistische oder crip-genealogische sowie klassistische Perspektiven und Ansätze anzuschließen und diese mit Blick auf Sensormedien im körpersoziologischen Kontext weiterzudenken.

Die Tagung widmet sich dem Alltag von und mit Sensormedien und deren sinnlichen und körperlichen Intimität unter den Vorzeichen sozialer Differenz und Diversität und fragt danach, wie digital gestützte Multisensorialitäten das Soziale formen. Mit dem Untertitel „Situierung, Differenzierung, Standardisierung“, schlagen wir drei heuristische bzw. analytische Perspektiven vor, die sich z. T. überschneiden und in den folgenden Fragen exemplarisch widerspiegeln:

• Situierung. Inwiefern können Sensormedien die sinnliche Wahrnehmung rekonfiguieren? Wie ist das Zusammenspiel von menschlichem Sensorium und technologischen Sensoren in sozialen Situationen, d.h. in Praktiken, Interaktions- und Wissensformen situiert? Welche alltäglichen Situierungen fordern diverse Körperlichkeiten angesichts zunehmender sozialer Ungleichheiten, Exklusionsmechanismen und marginalisierter Wissensformen heraus? Und inwiefern werden diese auch im Forschungsprozess relevant und reflektiert?
• Differenzierung. Welche Körperlichkeiten geraten über soziale Differenzen und Differenzierungsprozesse in den Blick? Wie sind diese ausschlaggebend für die Konstruktion von (marginalisiertem) Wissen, bzw. Praxis- und Interaktionsformen, die z.T. außerhalb des Radius von Sensormedien liegen? Welche neuen Vulnerabilitäten, Diskriminierungen und Verantwortlichkeiten entstehen durch sinnliche Sensorbeziehungen?
• Standardisierung. Wie und inwiefern inskribieren sich standardisiertes Körperwissen, Körpertechniken und Praktiken im Design und in gebauten Infrastrukturen von Sensormedien? Welche Körper werden exkludiert? Welche Standardisierungen zeigen sich in der Interaktion/Intraaktion mit Sensormedien und deren Umwelten? Wie wird marginalisiertes Wissen in die Standardisierung von Abläufen und Routinen, die durch Sensormedien gestützt werden, übersetzt? Wie ist der Zusammenhang zwischen sozialen Praktiken der Gestaltung, Nutzung und Formen der Standardisierung neu zu denken?

Call for Papers PDF

14:15 – 15:15 Uhr

Elena Pilipets (P03) (Universität Siegen)

Programmability: Porn Bots, Authenticity, and Social Automation on Instagram

15:15 – 16:15 Uhr

Philippe Sormani (Universität Siegen)

Unframing ‘AI’: Of Machines, Media, and Montage?

Massimiliano Mollona (Universität Bologna):
Between Art, Activism and Anthropology. An exploration of artistic practices as militant research

The talk discusses ethnographic fieldwork as a process of sense making in the broader acception, that is of making sense of an increasingly complex and contested world, in which the practice of research and that of activism tend to overlap with unforeseeable consequences.  I discuss particularly the relevance of art practices for an ethnographic engagement at the threshold between pedagogy and activism.

Massimiliano Mollona’s main research focus is on labour, class, and post-capitalism. His work experiments at the intersection between anthropology and socially engaged art, both through scholarly contributions, and through practical engagement with the art world, such as collaborative film projects; directorship of the Athens Biennale and the Bergen Assembly and the founding of the Institute of Radical Imagination, a collective of social centres, curators, museums, and artists operating at the intersection of art and social activism. Mollona is leading the project Cinema as Assembly, a collaboration with major European museums and international scholars on cinema as tool of political gathering across indigenous locales in the global south; with anthropologist James Clifford he is working on Impossible Realism, and with artist Dora Garcia, on the ‘unartist’ as part of his project on communist art.

Zoom info:

Topic: 60 Minutes in Anthropology WS 2023/24 in co-op. with SFB 1187
Time: Nov 8, 2023 02:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
https://uni-koeln.zoom.us/j/94597966553?pwd=T2xQWTFsZjBVUVJNWERXajZxcXlndz09
Meeting ID: 945 9796 6553
Password: 012805

All lectures take place in Cologne and also online.

This Lecture Series explores dynamics of sensing and sense making, and thus takes up a topic that is at the center of interdisciplinary work at the CRC “Media of Cooperation” (Siegen/Cologne). At the same time, it introduces the research of the CRC to researchers at the University of Cologne and various international working groups in and on the Mediterranean by using the well-established “60 Minutes” in Ethnography, Theory, Anthropology as a forum.

The increasing spread of sensor technologies and the equipping of smart devices with sensors restructures forms of perception, sensing and knowledge making. Sensors measure movements in the city, record air quality, temperatures and energy consumption, control production and logistics processes in interaction with algorithms and learning systems, track the behavior and well-being of people, recognize people in images and video recordings or re-organize (digital) terrains. Sensor data, their collection, analysis, and integration with other data formats, and their interaction with various forms of practice are constitutive not only of sensing, but also of sense making.

In this series of talks, we are interested in forms of sensing and sense making vis-à-vis major dynamics of socio-political and environmental crises in and beyond the Mediterranean, in particular (1) mobility and related border regimes, (2) growing environmental crises and their (non)management, and (3) forms of social mobilization (activism) and their control. All three areas are characterized by specific forms of socio-technical sensing and the engagement with it – sense making, both distributed among multiple actors, including humans, machines, and the environment itself. Sensor media are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and come with a number of ethical and political challenges – such as the erosion of privacy, new forms of surveillance, and socio-technical proliferation of prejudices and various forms of bias. Often they are perceived as both – as drivers of, but also as possible solutions for different forms of social, political, technical and environmental crises.

In this lecture series, Sensing and Sense Making will be explored praxeologically – and thus in its various forms and formats. Part I will investigate forms of sense making in the context of deadly borders regimes, in hazardous environments and as part of social activism. Part II will look at the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic research and public interventions to engage with situations of crises and collaborative knowledge production.

Organized by Nina ter Laan, Carla Tiefenbacher and Martin Zillinger for the CRC “Media of Cooperation” Siegen/Cologne and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (DoSCA), University of Cologne.

Köln-Siegener Meisterklasse Medienethnographie

Die Nutzung audiovisueller Medien hat in der Geschichte ethnographischer Forschungsansätze eine immer stärker aufgefächerte methodische Diskussion nach sich gezogen. Daraus haben sich innovative Impulse für die wechselseitigen Kooperationsverhältnisse ergeben, die zwischen den ethnographisch Forschenden, den an der Forschung Teilnehmenden und dem Publikum ethnographischer Forschungsergebnisse, sowie den unterschiedlich involvierten Medien entstehen. In der Köln-Siegener Meisterklasse für Medienethnographie werden führende Vertreter:innen der visuellen Ethnologie ihre Arbeiten und Forschungsansätze vorstellen und mit den Teilnehmer:innen das je eigene Forschungsmaterial diskutieren.

In Bildern dokumentarisch erzählen
Für alle, die Bildern und beobachtenden Szenen mehr Gewicht in ihren Dokumentarfilmen geben wollen. Ein praktischer Workshop.

Teil 1:
Freitag (03.11.) – von 14:00 bis 19:15 im Gebäude 106, Raum S26
Samstag (04.11.)  – von 09:00 bis 15:30 im Gebäude 103, Raum S69

Teil 2:
Freitag (17.11.) – von 14:00 bis 19.15 Uhr im Gebäude 106, Raum S26
Samstag (18.11.) – von 09:00 bis 15.30 Uhr im Gebäude 103, Raum S69

Voraussetzungen: Teilnahme an allen Terminen; keine Vorkenntnisse erforderlich, eigener Laptop erforderlich, eigene Kamera (z.B. Smartphone/Kompaktkamera) von Vorteil, eigene  Filmidee möglich aber nicht notwendig (bitte bei der Anmeldung angeben)

Teilnahme: 15 Personen max.

Inhalt
Was sind Bilder? Und wie nehme ich Videos/Sequenzen auf, die mit Bildern erzählen? In diesem Workshop geht es um das Sehen, das genaue Hinschauen, das Wahrnehmen von Stimmungen und das bildliche Aufnehmen dieser mit der Videokamera. Praktische Übungen und theoretische Überlegungen werden sich abwechseln. Wir sprechen über filmische Haltungen, über mögliches Material jenseits von talking heads und Interviews, und über Storytelling. Wie verorte ich mich im Film? Wie funktionieren Reportagen? Wie arbeiten künstlerische Dokumentarfilme? Zusammen werden wir kurze Szenen aufnehmen: Wie werden Handlungen bildlich aufgelöst? Worauf muss ich achten? Was sind die besonderen Herausforderungen des “beobachtenden Drehens” (fly-on-the-wall-Ansatz)?Zum Abschluss wollen wir verschiedene Erzählstrukturen anschauen: Wie unterscheiden sie sich? Was transportieren sie? Und was bedeutet es für die Bilder/Sequenzen, die ich aufnehme?

Wenn Teilnehmende eine eigene Filmidee haben, die sie umsetzen möchten, können sie die sehr gerne einbringen. Im Laufe des Workshops werde ich dann versuchen, praktische Tipps und Tricks zu geben.

Zur Person
Sebastian Eschenbach hat visuelle Anthropologie studiert und arbeitet seit 25 Jahren als freiberuflicher Dokumentarfilmer. Seine Arbeiten reichen von experimentellen Dokumentarfilmen über konventionelle TV Dokumentationen bis hin zu künstlerischen Dokumentarfilmen. Sein letzter Film “Von Wurzeln, Gärten und anderen Früchten. Mit Migrant*innen durch das Gartenjahr” ist 2022 erschienen (DE, 70’).

Johara Beriane (München) : Sensing and Sensemaking: Migration

All lectures take place in Cologne and also online.

This Lecture Series explores dynamics of sensing and sense making, and thus takes up a topic that is at the center of interdisciplinary work at the CRC “Media of Cooperation” (Siegen/Cologne). At the same time, it introduces the research of the CRC to researchers at the University of Cologne and various international working groups in and on the Mediterranean by using the well-established “60 Minutes” in Ethnography, Theory, Anthropology as a forum.

The increasing spread of sensor technologies and the equipping of smart devices with sensors restructures forms of perception, sensing and knowledge making. Sensors measure movements in the city, record air quality, temperatures and energy consumption, control production and logistics processes in interaction with algorithms and learning systems, track the behavior and well-being of people, recognize people in images and video recordings or re-organize (digital) terrains. Sensor data, their collection, analysis, and integration with other data formats, and their interaction with various forms of practice are constitutive not only of sensing, but also of sense making.

In this series of talks, we are interested in forms of sensing and sense making vis-à-vis major dynamics of socio-political and environmental crises in and beyond the Mediterranean, in particular (1) mobility and related border regimes, (2) growing environmental crises and their (non)management, and (3) forms of social mobilization (activism) and their control. All three areas are characterized by specific forms of socio-technical sensing and the engagement with it – sense making, both distributed among multiple actors, including humans, machines, and the environment itself. Sensor media are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and come with a number of ethical and political challenges – such as the erosion of privacy, new forms of surveillance, and socio-technical proliferation of prejudices and various forms of bias. Often they are perceived as both – as drivers of, but also as possible solutions for different forms of social, political, technical and environmental crises.

In this lecture series, Sensing and Sense Making will be explored praxeologically – and thus in its various forms and formats. Part I will investigate forms of sense making in the context of deadly borders regimes, in hazardous environments and as part of social activism. Part II will look at the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic research and public interventions to engage with situations of crises and collaborative knowledge production.

Organized by Nina ter Laan, Carla Tiefenbacher and Martin Zillinger for the CRC “Media of Cooperation” Siegen/Cologne and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (DoSCA), University of Cologne

Khalid Mouna (Meknes): Sensing and Sensemaking: North Morocco: When the margins produce their sound. Drug users in Tangier, Morocco.

All lectures take place in Cologne and also online.

This Lecture Series explores dynamics of sensing and sense making, and thus takes up a topic that is at the center of interdisciplinary work at the CRC “Media of Cooperation” (Siegen/Cologne). At the same time, it introduces the research of the CRC to researchers at the University of Cologne and various international working groups in and on the Mediterranean by using the well-established “60 Minutes” in Ethnography, Theory, Anthropology as a forum.

The increasing spread of sensor technologies and the equipping of smart devices with sensors restructures forms of perception, sensing and knowledge making. Sensors measure movements in the city, record air quality, temperatures and energy consumption, control production and logistics processes in interaction with algorithms and learning systems, track the behavior and well-being of people, recognize people in images and video recordings or re-organize (digital) terrains. Sensor data, their collection, analysis, and integration with other data formats, and their interaction with various forms of practice are constitutive not only of sensing, but also of sense making.

In this series of talks, we are interested in forms of sensing and sense making vis-à-vis major dynamics of socio-political and environmental crises in and beyond the Mediterranean, in particular (1) mobility and related border regimes, (2) growing environmental crises and their (non)management, and (3) forms of social mobilization (activism) and their control. All three areas are characterized by specific forms of socio-technical sensing and the engagement with it – sense making, both distributed among multiple actors, including humans, machines, and the environment itself. Sensor media are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and come with a number of ethical and political challenges – such as the erosion of privacy, new forms of surveillance, and socio-technical proliferation of prejudices and various forms of bias. Often they are perceived as both – as drivers of, but also as possible solutions for different forms of social, political, technical and environmental crises.

In this lecture series, Sensing and Sense Making will be explored praxeologically – and thus in its various forms and formats. Part I will investigate forms of sense making in the context of deadly borders regimes, in hazardous environments and as part of social activism. Part II will look at the challenges and opportunities of ethnographic research and public interventions to engage with situations of crises and collaborative knowledge production.

Organized by Nina ter Laan, Carla Tiefenbacher and Martin Zillinger for the CRC “Media of Cooperation” Siegen/Cologne and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (DoSCA), University of Cologne.

Special opening times:

27th September 2023: 12 – 8 p.m.

28th September 2023: 12 – 8 p.m.

29th September 2023: 12 – 4 p.m.

27th September 2023: 6 – 8 p.m. „Meet the camera ethnographers“

There’s an extra chance to visit the exhibition – as part of the 31^st annual conference of the German Educational Research Association (GERA)’s subdivision Primary Education Research.

What happens to touch when we come together digitally? Does it get lost, or altered, or is it set loose to wander between and among the senses? Where humans interact with digital devices, the limits of what can be understood as touch appear to be shifting. Those unstable limits can be studied, probed, und experienced in the exhibition “Reinventing touch”: a camera ethnographic Blicklabor (laboratory of gazes) in which hands, heads, arms, faces, voices, earth, and glass interact as media of touch. The exhibited video installations provoke reflection on and reconsideration of touch, the senses, and digital media. Their protagonists are children for whom the digital is an integral part of everyday life – a generation that never experienced the analogue “old days”, and never will. Perhaps now is the time to ask whether touch is currently undergoing reinvention – in early childhood and beyond.

An exhibition by the camera ethnographic research team Bina E. Mohn, Pip Hare, and Astrid Vogelpohl together with Jutta Wiesemann, PI of the research project “Early Childhood and Smartphone“ within the collaborative research centre 1187 “Media of Cooperation”, University of Siegen, Germany. Realised in collaboration with greinerdesign and hosted by the Haus der Wissenschaft, Siegen.