Mhacking Change / Intersectional Feminist Perspectives for the Metadesign of Transdisciplinary Data Practices in Third Spaces
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mhacking change / intersectional feminist perspectives for the metadesign of transdisciplinary data practices in third spaces ⏩♀⚧ Alessandra Del Nero Laureanda Alessandra Del Nero 863285 → Relatore Paolo Ciuccarelli mhacking change Intersectional feminist perspectives for the metadesign of transdisciplinary data practices in third spaces. Politecnico di Milano facoltà del Design Laurea Magistrale Design della Comunicazione → A.A. 2018/19 acknowledgments Writing this thesis would have not been possible without the help and the love of all the people that I am lucky to have around. I would like to start by thanking my extended family, and my parents for allowing me to study and supporting me along this journey. I am especially grateful to my mother, who made me fresh orange juice each and every morning in the past few months, while caring for me in every possible way. To my friends, especially to Giulia, whom I worked side by side almost everyday lately, it would have been unimaginable to think about doing this without you. Thank you. To Sofia, who is part of the magic trio, for the time she spent helping us and giving us feedbacks. To Alessandra for her constant support and for the feedbacks she gave me. To all my friends for all the fun I had with you while I wasn't writing. To all people that I met through SOS and M^c^o, thank you, you taught me more that you could imagine and many of the contents of this research have been inspired by you. Finally I am sincerely grateful to my thesis advisor, for believing in the potential of my ideas and for the valuable feedbacks that he provided me while writing this research. abstract 11 index introduction 15 data and society 21 01 → Back to words 02 → The politics of data Massive online world datafication Dataselves and data assemblages Profit machines Agency feminist critical perspectivesw 41 03 → Raw data are never really raw 04 → No dataset found 05 → On collection and classification 06 → Feminist critical studies Objectivity Engaging with the margins Vision and neutrality Situated knowledges Towards intersectional feminism empowerment 65 07 → Democracy The public 08 → 09 → Engagement 10 → Communicating complexity Emotions Disembodiment On participatory practices From theory to design 7 INDEX data agency 91 11 → Data visualization trajectory Beyond data visualization Data physicalization Data sculptures Making data Performing data On aesthetic experiences On tactics of subversion Feminist data visualization 12 → Third spaces Feminist maker/hackerspaces as vectors of inclusion and empowerment metadesign of transdisciplinary data practices 115 13 → The metadesign organization Objectives definition and functional requirements From functional to design requirements From design to project requirements Insights and further developments final considerations 147 On the metadesign Learning outcomes Future perspectives 9 INDEX In a period of profound and rapid changes, there are among them the crisis of democratic institutions and the rise of data-driven technologies abstract which are becoming an intrinsic part of our lives. The world we live in is increasingly interconnected, even though this is also exacerbating profound asymmetries between those who own the power to use data, and those who are subjected to it. Data can be a tool that enables new ways of interacting and collaborating, or it can be used to oppress, invade people’s privacy, and foster discrimination. The feminist theories that have been analysed are the theoretical framework to examine how knowledge is produced, and systems of power reproduced and embedded in data-driven technologies. These theories, along with critical data studies and critical design, are the keys to understand how to increase people’s agency, emanci- pation, empowerment, and self-determination. In a democracy of agonistic pluralism, political questions require to decide between valid and conflicting alternatives. These alternatives can be constructed with data practice reassembled in light of intersectional feminist perspectives, critical data studies and other theories. This research has been a foundation for the metadesign of transdiscipli- nary data practices in third spaces that are imagined as the crossbreeding of feminist hacker and maker spaces. 11 ABSTRACT “how can we make ⏩ data a tool for social change instead of a weapon for political oppression” YESHIMABEIT MILNER, 2018 In recent years the world has been facing many and profound changes. From social movements in the Middle East, the refugee “crisis”, the evidence introduction of the effects of climate change affecting mostly the poorest, then the rise of right wing parties bringing back in vogue sexist, xenophobic and homophobic ideas. On the bright side there are a movement made of young people rising to demand climate change initiatives, feminist movements raising their voices, long dismissed or ignored, all over the world, and various critical studies and collaborative practices that are flourishing. It’s a time where we see the profound clash of ideologies going in opposite directions. For data have enormous power, what is their role within this context? How are they impacting our society? Who can access, analyse data and who is represented by them? If data can have the power to account for systematic oppression, and maybe fuel systemic change, thenhow can they become a tool for social change? How can the power of data be leveraged for social good to hack, transform and reassemble our culture and society? How can data inspire people to take action, not only individually but, more importantly, as commu- nities or collective movements? The data that are produced through the continual input of individuals, and those that are unwillingly or unknowingly produced, called metadata, through the rise of sensor networks, are aggregated and processed to produce value in a new political economy of personal data. All these transformations are happening, and exacerbating a historical context where the effect of capi- talism, colonialism and power are starting to show their full effects on the planet and climate change, on its related international emergencies and the growing socio-economic inequalities. Meanwhile, data are so pervasive in our society that they become relevant not only for technical or technological issues, but for cultural, psychological and especially political ones. Feminist critical studies and data critical studies have analysed and exposed the power inequalities embedded in scientific research and data collection and representation by examining how knowledge is constructed 15 INTRODUCTION from the point of view of those that are systematically excluded from its production. The point of view of some has the power to determine and classify the realities of others while their perspective is seemingly neutral. Feminist critiques have examined and exposed the fictional neutrality of these bodies while race studies have disclosed the multiple discrimination that people face because of gender, as well as sex, race or class. This phenomenon has been called intersectionality as a way to account for the multiple axes of oppression that weight on the way some experience the world. While feminist researchers developed the standpoint theory, that foregrounds feminist epistemologies, as a way of debunking the omniscient view of techno-positivism by intro- ducing a different method to accomplish objectivity. Intersectionality has the potential to become a meta-theory that enables the critical analysis of how design reproduces systems of oppression, exclusion and social segregation while sustaining a neoliberal capitalist economy that is based on. The power imbalances exacerbated by data-driven processes are inhib- iting participation thus enforcing dynamics of inequality and affecting our democracies. The topics of engagement, participation and then empowerment have been debated and evolved mostly around the topic of scientific commu- nication and governance. How can data through design become a way of intervening in intersectional power relations? For today’s socio-economical issues require to foreground the practice of data and design in intersectional feminist theories in order to start to truly tackle the chain of oppression that they are perpetuating. True participation, emancipation and empowerment can not be achieved solely through design, but different data practices on intersectional feminist theories can be designed to reassemble these prac- tices. How can safe places be designed for the people to own, shape and learn to use and hack and build technologies and data for their own communities? Imagining a space where these data practices, can be made by queer, trans*, women, black, indigenous, and/or people of color, with the objective of doing political agonistic actions, can be both utopia, and the starting point of something that is worth exploring. 17 INTRODUCTION “data is a communally produced product, it is an invisible layer documenting our lives, however what is the experience of accessing, analysing and representing it?” JOANNA SLEIGH, 2016 Data can be a powerful instrument. A critical approach to data can help define the questions around its epistemological frameworks and the social data and issues around them. One of the first questions is how data, or big data, interact with society, social processes and how can the people interact with them and use them? (ILLIADIS AND RUSSO, 2016). society This chapter begins to expose some key issues and discussions that are growing