About Digital Caretaking ☲fireside☲ Talk Series (Online)

What? A series of twelve short-form talks broadcast online location shared via email to interested parties shortly before commencement. The progressive, just-in-time approach to honours the ephemeral nature of adaptive, context-dependent livelihoods, emphasising flexibility and responsiveness to diverse situations. The Shortform ☲fireside☲ talks take place against the burning backdrop of climate catastrophe, in the wake of the fourth industrial automation, and sixth species mass-extinction. This must not be mistaken for e/acc accelleration , instead, more along the lines of Sadie Plant’s social poetic theory; Tiziana Terranova’s post-autonomism (grassroots public seminars, workshops etc, artists, activists, precarious knowledge workers & the imperilled who may be still officially affiliated with universities).

Series 1 - 9.7.24 Opensource Visual Design Tools Beyond Neocolonial Big Tech

Shahee Ilyas will discuss his research, which explores how data visualisation on mobile media can address ecological grief and drive social change. He will also introduce Inkscape, a free and open-source vector visual graphics editor, highlighting its capabilities and limitations as an alternative to high environmental impact Big Tech (FAANG) software with similar functions. Your browser does not support the video tag. Rainfall by Month 1975 - 2020 45 Years - Malé, Maldives process.

Series 11 - 19.11.24 Waning Gibbous 🌘 Permacomputing in the Arts

This talk is based on the premise that Permacomputing could promote a transition from a system in which creative practitioners use the latest digital tools and media, regardless of environmental consequences, to a more strategic system in which digital tools and media of all generations are carefully combined, crafted, and used to form a less extractive practice. Aymeric Mansoux will discuss Permacomputing in the Arts, a workshop series he leads that explores to what degree the concept of permacomputing can be broadened and applied to critically revised, sustainable ways of making computing part of art and design education and professional practice.

Series 2 - 23.7.24 Permacomputing from an antipodean perspective

Permacomputing an antipodean perspective towards decolonising digital culturescapes. Nancy Mauro-Flude will attend to the possibilities and limitations of Permacomputing by delving into the politics of our computing habits (i.e., data storage); to think through how we may occupy digital spaces otherwise, envisioning possibilities akin to inhabiting a room within a bag of stars. A set of principles that are a work in progress are introduced. The audience is invited to contribute, modify, expand, and constructively critique in a collaborative text editor to nurture the value of counter-expertise, examining how such alternatives can adequately address on-the-ground complexities when broaching the challenges of preserving complex cultural heritage.

Series 3 - 6.8.24 Why artists might want to consider creating their own low-carbon Email Universe on a hand-held micro-computer

Artist, trader and feral economist Kate Rich has been experimenting in the “dull” spaces of administration, infrastructure and maintenance since 1992. Least evident of her accomplishments is setting up a mail server for the Irational.org art server collective on a Raspberry Pi micro-computer, a background project that even she forgets about, so long as everything miraculously works. A live-action picture of the mail server for Irational.org. Image Kate Rich. Kate will converse with Nancy Mauro-Flude about DIY infrastructure, the arts of doing as little as possible, and the (super) power of reimagining email as a service that could be run by friends.

Series 4 - 20.8.2024 Charm Crafting Algorithms and Automation Governance

This fireside talk takes a deep dive into 21st-century Charm Craft with Dr Denisa Reshef Kera. Offering insights into how to chant and hum over AI Agents using prompts as regulatory artefacts and tools of communicative action, her work sits at the frontiers of art, design, and policy. It engages speculative sandboxing as quasi-public spaces working with emerging infrastructures. Hot off the press is Denisa’s 2024 book Algorithms and Automation Governance over Rituals, Machines, and Prototypes, from Sundial to Blockchain, that traces the development of algorithms and automation from ancient rituals to modern-day prototypes and highlights the challenges posed by new technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Series 5 - 3.9.24 New Moon 🌑 Contemporary Ecofeminisms recovering the wands of faerie godmothers amid the shipwreck of 5th Industrial Automation.

Exiting the eye of a storm, navigating from Northern star within, in ☲Fireside☲ series 5, Jo Pollitt, Nancy Mauro-Flude and Leanda Mason share a glimpse into the Contemporary Ecofeminist Education (CEE) research project. By wading through the legacies of ecofeminism, in conversation with ecofeminist philosopher Patsy Hallen, in South Yunderup, Western Australia, who led “Environmental Philosophy and Earth Education“ communally designed bush schools at the end of last century. The prolific set of experiential research pedaogies delivered by Patsy Hallen in the context of Australia’s first ‘Environmental Ethics’ (1981) and ‘Ecofeminism’ (1991) courses at Murdoch University included a number of exquisitely curated hefty course readers.

Series 6 - 17.9.24 Waxing Gibbous 🌖 Uncanny knowledge tips and tricks for tending your own archives

Samara McIlroy is an archivist, artist, gardener, and fermenter. In this fireside chat, Samara will draw upon her extensive career in the field of archives and information governance. Her journey has encompassed a diverse array of document formats, botha physical and digital, and has taken her from shiny office high-rises to the more utilitarian spaces of shipping containers and Olympic warehouses. Samara’s expertise is deeply rooted in the practical and tactile aspects of archival work—knowledge cultivated through years of thinking with archival materials and engaging with archivally inclined people.

Series 7 - 1.10.24 Waning Crescent ☽ Wireless Solidarity

On this we will be graced with Dr. Heather Contant an artist and historian who works with sound, radio, and visual media to explore structural coupling amongst human and more-than-human beings from the past and present. MORE INFO COMING SOON for Series 7 - 1.10.24 Waning Crescent ☽ Heather uses an array of technologies and procedural techniques to produce online, installation-based, and live works and is currently completing a book project entitled, “Wireless Solidarity: A History of Generative Collectivism in Media Arts.

Schedule List Dates Topics Digital Caretaking ☲fireside☲ Talk Series

Series 1 - 9.7.24 Waxing Crescent ☾Opensource Visual Design Tools Beyond Neocolonial Big Tech Guest Shahee Ilyas Series 2 - 23.7.24 Waning Gibbous 🌘Antipodean permacomputing brief introduction towards decolonising digital culturescapes Nancy Mauro-Flude Series 3 - 6.8.24 Waxing Crescent ☾ Cloud Unfriendly: Why artists might want to consider creating their own low-carbon Email Universe on a hand-held micro-computer Guest Kate Rich Series 4 - 20.8.24 Full Moon 🌕 Charm Crafting: Algorithms and Automation Governance Over Rituals, Machines, and Prototypes, from Sundial to Blockchain, Guest Dr.