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Possible questions include:
- What complications plague our access to so much information?
- What information is actually private?
- How do our management and storage of information affect us?
- What freedoms and choices are we willing to surrender to silicon and algorithms?
- Where do we draw the line when it comes to sharing personal information?
A birth certificate is a credential that is often taken for granted until it is required. It serves as proof of one's age or citizenship; and it is a requirement in order to be adopted, to go to school, to get a driver's license or a passport, to marry, to inherit property, and to be elected to office. But in helping us prove who we are, this document also helps define who we are; it has been involved, at various times and places, in the social construction of our sex, race/ethnicity, nationality, and parental lineage. This discussion will explore the production of identification as a method of governing and the formation of identity as a byproduct of such governance.
The Idea Café is intended to elicit energetic exchanges between attendees in response to the speaker's introduction.
Emilio Chapela lives in Mexico City and works internationally. His work is concerned with the development of systems that allow the operator to control various processes such as those used for conventional and unconventional methods to determine the relative importance of individualized factors. He also investigates the effect of increasing importance of the different methods used to identify the specific factors involved in the production and dissemination of a particular type of information. He has worked with several different methods to determine how the various systems respond to the needs identified through their own resources.
Emilio Chapela Pérez will present some of the ideas that motivate his artistic work regarding books. Particularly, he will raise questions regarding the future of books and libraries. Are libraries obsolete? Will they evolve? Will books -as objects- survive mass digitalization? Should they? And most importantly: When and how will books die?
With students of Maria Velasco's Expanded Media courses, Emilio Chapela Pérez will deliver a performance at the Spencer Museum of Art, in conjunction with his residency at The Commons.
With Ruben Flores, American Studies and History; Germaine Halegoua, Film & Media Studies; Emilio Chapela Pérez, Artist in Residence; and Moderated by Danny Anderson, Dean, CLAS
Sponsored by the University Honors Program.
The 2013 University Lecture Series at The Commons is themed "Digital Humanities" and complements the Honors/Commons course designed for Honors Program students, taught by Dr. Doug Ward, Associate Professor of Journalism.
The Commons will host a debate, moderated by Leonard Krishtalka, about the data deluge, our growing reliance on silicon and algorithms, and the outsourcing of decision-making to artificial "thinking machines." Dartmouth Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy James Moor, and KU Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Perry Alexander will speak from opposing positions. Moor will speak about human relationship and reliance on technology from a conditional dystopian perspective, and Alexander will deliver the Utopian counterpoint. Audience participation is highly encouraged, as the second portion of the event will rely upon questions from the public.
Sponsored by the University Honors Program.
The 2013 University Lecture Series at The Commons is themed "Digital Humanities" and complements the Honors/Commons course designed for Honors Program students, taught by Dr. Doug Ward, Associate Professor of Journalism.
Sponsored by the University Honors Program, School of Engineering, Center for Digital Humanities, Dept. of Film & Media Studies, Dept. of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Commons, Information and Telecommunication Technology Center, Spencer Museum of Art
Codebreaker is a docu-drama about the tumultuous life of Alan Turing, in whose honor the Spencer Museum mounted a major exhibition in the Spring and Summer of 2012. Turing, a British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and pioneering computer scientist, helped crack Nazi codes and laid the foundation for the modern computer. He also endured severe persecution for his homosexuality. This film includes mature content. Running time: 81 minutes. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Patrick Sammon, Executive Producer of the film.
Sponsored by the University Honors Program.
The 2013 University Lecture Series at The Commons is themed "Digital Humanities" and complements the Honors/Commons course designed for Honors Program students, taught by Dr. Doug Ward, Associate Professor of Journalism.
"Big Data" are receiving an enormous amount of well-deserved buzz as they call on us to rethink who can do science and how it can be done. Yet there is also a certain blind optimism that with enough data, we will understand everything! This discussion will challenge this optimism, particularly as it relates to the study of people. Nancy Baym will draw on her experience at Microsoft Research, an interdisciplinary basic research lab where people are actively trying to create bridges between big data and ethnographic analysis.
The Idea Café is intended to elicit energetic exchanges between attendees in response to the speaker's introduction.
Lunch is provided. RSVP by April 9 to thecommons@ku.edu. Limit 40 guests.
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