"The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible” - toni cade bambara Platform Potentials Weekly Reflections and Moodboard by Alexandria UAL Creative Computing Institute Summer Term 2022 Instructor: lafayette cruise + ai for the people 6 may 2022 On advancing racial literacy in tech may 2022 ruma benjamin explains that "[racism] is systemic, connected constructed, productive. We say racism socially constructed, but we fail to state the corollary raciem constructs. It's viral • if we were truly this together we would not be this forever [racism] is not inevitable - it's a series of choices" racism is more than words, beliefs, and actions, and it is concealed by a dominant narrative that tech is neutral technology can never be neutral as is made and used by humans and we are not neutral. As danny remarks minority report. "If there is a flaw, it's human john always is." with racism being systemic, it can be seen in technology in the ways tech is designed, in who has access to it, and in who gets harmed by it. Structural racism is perpetuated through technologies as common as automated faucets to "Advanced" policing algorithms. Being able and willing to recognise this and how harmful this is is necessary when thinking about technology. As benjamin states, "Racism constructs" and in order to break free old patterns, racism needs to be recognised, challenged and stopped before reproducing harms in technology. It truly is about choices. Are you choosing to take action to reduce harms to communities of colour? What more could you do? Why aren't you doing that now? 9 may 2022 In class: we thought about what could an internet look like. There is a pervasive narrative in tech that encourages speed and efficiency and these valves and a set of assumptions about society are what so many technologies have been built on. What if we reimagined an internet to be equitable? What values would we encourage? What if the internet was something we took care of like a community garden? We would know to value slowness, patience, and care. We would all benefit maybe more than just humans would benefit too. I think about my relationship to the internet because how I use the internet is reflective of the way I view society and because how I view society affects how I view the internet. I look for community on the internet because I feel that missing, lacking, absent from my everyday life. I feel connected to my friends and family with the internet but to connect means that I must disconnect with what is in front of me. I disconnect from land and nature and who and what is around me. I disconnect from my identity and connect into my digital identity that is only a flat abstraction of myself. I can still feel control over changing parts of my digital relationships, but there is so much that we cant control. Do somepeople not know that the a safe, fair, equal, or neutral place or does internet is not the lack of contron and care discourage any possibility for better internet no matter how skilled we are as gardeners, there will always lack of control in nature. As humans be we are no exception to this lack of control, but we must still try to make things better\ 16 may 2022 Lafayette asked : may 2022 do you think the data that 18 created and collected about you is an extension of yourself or part of yourself? Think that data neither part of myself, nor an extension of myself but what mine? What do consider be part myself> who does my phsical body belong to? Is it truly mine? An extension of my soul? Doer it belong to my mother? Does it belong to my community? To the land? To nature? I glitch manifesto, legacy russell refers to quote that the prutagonist david says in james baldwin's novel giovanni's room "It doesnit matter, it is only the body, land] will soon be over." russell takes this to apply the glitch on the gendered body to allow for exploring infinite possibilities I take this and think about my relationshi to my body and my body's relationship to society. Through my experiences with disability my body exists *s challenge sometimes require more from my community than I can give, I sometimes don't want my physical body to be mine. My body has taken away my happiness, my pride, and my confidence, because of my body I may never know true comfort but it has also brought me so much joy and happiness, hold this feeling, it data about me and my body could never can't be represented and it does not belong to anyone extension, nor is it a part of me. Photograph of me isn't an I= a part of me. This data is nametag isn't an extension, nor is about me, even if it can govern my access to services and rights, it not me 23 may 2022 Lafayette said: imagine irresistible 23 may 2022 futures, keep building stories around them, and keep telling these stories of these possible futures. The stories we tell reinforce their possibility and give a way to challenge current situations future I want can get slurpees with my dad every day future I want I can give my friends their ravourite flowers. In future I want have a full spice cabinet future I want, greek music is playing future I want have no more migraine days in a future want will still dream of all the times that will be happy in the future. Want, the people that I love and care in a future for will continue to experience love, success, and joy in future | want, we are free 30 may 2022 Identity 2.0 30 may 20 22 a creative studio working at the intersection of digital rights, tech, and identity. They are exploring what it means to exist online do exist online? What does it mean to exist? How do exist online? What shapes my online existance? When I think of my digital identity I think not only about what 1 share online, but the created identities that have been made about me. Think about how big tech is trying to collect as much data aj possible that the idea of human means data to them. Lavren kirchner warns that "From retail to real estate, from employment to criminal justice the use of data mining, scoring software, and predictive analytics programs is proliferating at an exponential rate software that makes decisions based on data like a persons zip code can reflect, or even amplify, the results of historical zuboff connects this ar institutional discrimination." shoshana "Unilaterally claims human to surveillance capitalism which experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data" but to each of them collecting and creating am split. My data points are not well pata about me, I connected, can claim rights for a unified existence? Am always growing, changing, and dreaming. If I wasn't would be nothing. This messiness, this plurality does not get represented well data and that creates a digital 1 pentity that I feel distance with I don't have my name online, my ethnicity is 'other' or mixed' my story is lost the drop down list of options shape my online existance, lines of code limit how I exist online , my digital identity is bounded but am infinite 6 june 2022 Lafayette asked . Tune 2022 what does community mean a digital and highly mobile global worlds what does it mean to build community? To me community is about connection, and as adrienne maree brown states in emergent strategy, "E-v-e-ry-t-h-I-n•g. Is connected, the soil needs rain, organic matter air worms, and life in order to do what needs to do te give and receive life, each element is an essential component." the digital world we are in makes us even more connected to each other than ever. I have begn able to stay in contact with friends and family and care and love them from a distance because of tech advances in this digital world. To me community about sharing stories sharing dreams, and sharing fears. In a digital world I can share my story with whom iwant to. Community is also choose to, whenever linked to everything around me, beyond just humans each step that I take might bring a new connection and that to me, is building community 13 june 2022 Lola asked how can we care for the internet? This not something I had thought about before. I've been trying to think more about care and love in my life and recently read all about love by bell hooks. She explains that "love is combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust" and that "to love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds." To think about caring for the internet then should start with thinking about my relationship to it. Is it meaningful? Do I want this relation? Hooks also acknowledges "love is an action, never simply a feeling also acknowledges that lare for the internet> care involves what actions can I take to mutuality - how is the internet caring for me? As Donna Haraway explains, caring means becoming subject to the unsettling obligation ge curiosity, which" reauires knowing more at the end of the day than the beginning" to think about caring for the internet then should start with curiosity about the internet and wanting ta know more about when care about someone want to know about them want to know tow they are what they like how they feel their best, I am curious can care for the internet by learning how it works, where works, and by making it the best version it can be. We as humans are entangled with all of the world we are not alone, we are not exceptional , all we have are our relations. Arabelle Sicardi describes that "Beauty in't just about appearance - it's about caring for ourselves and each other 50 we all survive and prosper in the world." and shares that beauty is in acts of ordinary devotion ugliness must be in the acts of everyday neglect! The internet has helped me survive and prosper in the world and that a beautiful thing. Even if the internet does not care for me in the same way I can care for it loving and caring all my relations is something beautiful