This research project aims to pick up where Incommunicado left off, to look past conferences organized in the West, the debates sponsored by western organizations, and to instead look through the lens of the individual end users on the ground. This project aims to embed itself amongst the people living at the ‘bottom of the ICT pyramid’ and to look at the same discussion from their perspective. It is this ‘other’ point of view that is too often missing in the ICT4D debate, otherwise a valuable voice that helps to put technologies, projects and organizations into their proper context.
Inspired by taxonomist Jack Goody’s theorizing of ‘ancient lists’ as ‘intellectual technologies’, this book analyzes listing practices in modern and contemporary formations of power, and how they operate in the installation and securing of the milieus of circulation that characterize Michel Foucault’s conception of governmentality. Propelling the list’s role in the delimitation and policing of risky and threatening elements from out of history and into a contemporary analysis of power, this work demonstrates how assemblages of computer, statistical, and list technologies first deployed by the Nazi regime continue to resonate significantly in the segmenting and constitution of a critical classification of contemporary homo sapiens: the terrorist class, or homo sacer.
MULTIFILE
In on editorialization: structuring space and authority in the digital age, Marcello Vitali-Rosati examines how authority changes in the digital era. Authority seems to have vanished in the age of the web, since the spatial relationships that authority depends on are thought to have levelled out: there are no limits or boundaries, no hierarchies or organized structures anymore. Vitali-Rosati claims the opposite to be the case: digital space is well-structured and material and has specific forms of authority. Editorialization is one key process that organizes this space and thus brings into being digital authority. Investigating this process of editorialization, Vitali-Rosati reveals how politics can be reconceived in the digital age.
MULTIFILE
Designing cities that are socially sustainable has been a significant challenge until today. Lately, European Commission’s research agenda of Industy 5.0 has prioritised a sustainable, human-centric and resilient development over merely pursuing efficiency and productivity in societal transitions. The focus has been on searching for sustainable solutions to societal challenges, engaging part of the design industry. In architecture and urban design, whose common goal is to create a condition for human life, much effort was put into elevating the engineering process of physical space, making it more efficient. However, the natural process of social evolution has not been given priority in urban and architectural research on sustainable design. STEPS stems from the common interest of the project partners in accessible, diverse, and progressive public spaces, which is vital to socially sustainable urban development. The primary challenge lies in how to synthesise the standardised sustainable design techniques with unique social values of public space, propelling a transition from technical sustainability to social sustainability. Although a large number of social-oriented studies in urban design have been published in the academic domain, principles and guidelines that can be applied to practice are large missing. How can we generate operative principles guiding public space analysis and design to explore and achieve the social condition of sustainability, developing transferable ways of utilising research knowledge in design? STEPS will develop a design catalogue with operative principles guiding public space analysis and design. This will help designers apply cross-domain knowledge of social sustainability in practice.
Students in Higher Music Education (HME) are not facilitated to develop both their artistic and academic musical competences. Conservatoires (professional education, or ‘HBO’) traditionally foster the development of musical craftsmanship, while university musicology departments (academic education, or ‘WO’) promote broader perspectives on music’s place in society. All the while, music professionals are increasingly required to combine musical and scholarly knowledge. Indeed, musicianship is more than performance, and musicology more than reflection—a robust musical practice requires people who are versed in both domains. It’s time our education mirrors this blended profession. This proposal entails collaborative projects between a conservatory and a university in two cities where musical performance and musicology equally thrive: Amsterdam (Conservatory and University of Amsterdam) and Utrecht (HKU Utrechts Conservatorium and Utrecht University). Each project will pilot a joint program of study, combining existing modules with newly developed ones. The feasibility of joint degrees will be explored: a combined bachelor’s degree in Amsterdam; and a combined master’s degree in Utrecht. The full innovation process will be translated to a transferable infrastructural model. For 125 students it will fuse praxis-based musical knowledge and skills, practice-led research and academic training. Beyond this, the partners will also use the Comenius funds as a springboard for collaboration between the two cities to enrich their respective BA and MA programs. In the end, the programme will diversify the educational possibilities for students of music in the Netherlands, and thereby increase their professional opportunities in today’s job market.
Aaltjes: automatisch classificeren en tellen. Agrariërs laten bodemmonsters analyseren op onder meer aanwezigheid van aaltjes. Deze bodemanalyse is voor agrariërs cruciaal om de bodemgezondheid- en vruchtbaarheid vast te stellen maar behelst een grote kostenpost. Het identificeren, analyseren en tellen van aaltjes (nematoden) in een bodemmonster geschiedt in een gespecialiseerd laboratorium. Dit is tijdrovend, specialistisch en seizoensgebonden werk. Het tellen- en analyseren van aaltjes is mensenwerk en vergt training en ervaring van de laborant. Daarnaast hebben de laboratoria te maken met personeelstekort en de laboranten met sterk fluctuerende werkdruk. Derhalve is het speciaal voor dit project opgerichte samenwerkingsverband tussen Fontys GreenTechLab, ROBA Laboratorium en CytoSMART voornemens om een oplossing te ontwikkelen voor het automatisch classificeren en tellen van aaltjes. Dit project richt zich op de ontwikkeling van een proof of concept van een analysescanner. Het werk van de laboranten wordt grotendeels geautomatiseerd waarbij door de scanner de bodemmonsters middels toepassing van deep learning en virtual modeling kan worden geanalyseerd. Daarmee wordt beoogd een oplossing te bieden waarmee het personeelstekort wordt tegengegaan, de werkdruk kan worden verlaagd, mensenwerk wordt geautomatiseerd (waardoor de kans op fouten wordt verkleind) en de kosten voor agrariërs worden verlaagd.
