14:00-15:00 Laura Kocksch (online via Webex)

Title: Synthetic Interlocutors – Sorting ways of employing Generative AI in Ethnographic Research.

Abstract: The presentation begins with a demonstration of two chat bots we developed locally and in-house at the Techno-Anthropology Lab (TANTlab). Based on that it will offer a sorting of analytic ways Generative AI can be used in ethnography, arguing to utilize its capacity to be an ontological provocation, in stark contrast to more common conceptualizations as agent of speed, convenience and congeniality. 

15:00-16:00 Sara Messelaar Hammerschmidt (online via Webex)

Title: Synthetic Feeds: A case study of synthetic methods for studying entangled human-machine cultures

Abstract: This presentation will discuss the results of our Autumn School data sprint, wherein we explored “synthetic methods”  for ethnographic work on entangled human-machine digital cultures. We will discuss what  is “synthetic”  about a “synthetic method”. We will walk through the process we followed and outcomes for the generation of a “synthetic feed”. We will then talk about how to reason about the selection of tools and processing for building other synthetic methods, and touch on their limitations and pitfalls. 

Please register via email to info[æt]sfb1187.uni-siegen.de to receive the Webex link.