Ambiguities of Knowing

On June 20th we the symposium Re/Embodied Data – Ambiguities of Knowing will be hosted at Berlin Open Lab, in collaboration with Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). There will be panels on the Quantification of Breathing, More-than-human Technoecologies, as well as Wildlife and Data.

We live in a moment of comprehensive datafication. Due to digital technologies, ever more aspects of our lives and the planet can be measured, analyzed and shaped. This creates new ways of knowing and doing. But all too often, this development leads to a systematic devaluation of forms of knowing that cannot be quantified and processed digitally. This leads to ignorance and marginalization, enacting a form of epistemic violence. In this symposium, we will investigate the relationship between quantifiable and experiential, abstracted and embodied knowledges.

Digital data and lived worlds are never quite congruent. Technical measurement and more-than-human experience can never provide the exact same picture. Not because data is inaccurate (which, of course, it often is), but because it represents a fundamentally different relationship to oneself and the world. This brings into focus the differences between various forms of perception and the question of how we can make these differences productive.We address these differences through trans-disciplinary dialogues between researchers in the arts and sciences, focusing on epistemological, aesthetic, and techno-political aspects.

Speakers: Cornelia Sollfrank, Ulrich Ott, Michelle Christensen, Florian Conradi, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou, Anani Dodji Sanouvi, Felix Stalder, Johannes Fritz, Daniela Agostinho + Annette Jael Lehmann

Symposium: Re/Embodied Data – Ambiguities of Knowing. June 20, 2024, 9:30 - 18:30. Free entrance.