Feminist Data Set

This class was originally scheduled for November 7 and has been rescheduled to November 14.

What are the feminist data sets inside of social networks, algorithms, and big data? How can we queer data, archives, and the internet? How can a data set act as a form of protest, of a creation of bias mitigation? This class looks at ways of intervention, from art, design, and technology, that combat and challenge bias. How can we create data to be an act of protest against algorithms?

This workshop focuses on Alumni Technology Resident Caroline Sinders’s research and current art project, Feminist Data Set. Feminist Data Set acts as a means to combat bias and introduces the possibility of data collection as a feminist practice, aiming to produce a slice of data to intervene in larger civic and private networks. Exploring its potential to disrupt larger systems by generating new forms of agency, Sinders will ask participants: can data collection itself function as an artwork?

Date: This one-time online workshop meets on Saturday, November 14 from 3-5PM ET.

Price: Free ($10 suggested donation)

Audience: Open to all.

Materials: Participants will need a computer/phone with internet access.

Caroline Sinders is a machine-learning-design researcher and artist. For the past few years, she has been examining the intersections of natural language processing, artificial intelligence, abuse, online harassment, and politics in digital, conversational spaces. Sinders is the founder of Convocation Design + Research, an agency focusing on the intersections of machine learning, user research, designing for public good, and solving difficult communication problems. As a designer and researcher, she has worked with Amnesty International, Intel, IBM Watson, the Wikimedia Foundation, and others. Currently, she is a fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School exploring trust patterns designed to trick users in social networks, and a senior fellow with the Mozilla Foundation exploring AI, ethics, and society.

Sinders has held fellowships with Pioneer Works, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Eyebeam, STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, and the International Center of Photography. Her work has been featured in the Tate Exchange in Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert Museum, MoMA PS1, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Slate, Quartz, and the Channels Festival as well as others. Sinders holds a Masters from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Please note, this online workshop will begin promptly at the listed start time. In order to ensure the quality of instruction for all participants, late entry will not be permitted.