Machine Sensing. Virtual Em/bodi/e/ment/s
Mariam Rafehi & Regina Wuzella (emergent media & media studies)
English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Beginn: Montag, 8.1.2024, 11:30, Bundesallee, Raum 340

More and more, ubiquitous and all-pervasive (pervasive) sensor technologies are moving into the media-theoretical discourse (cf. Salter 2002; Thielmann 2019; Scholz 2020;Andrejevic 2015; Gabrys 2014; Verhoeff et al 2020 etc.). In the oscillation between machine sensing and human perception, a new kind of interplay and new forms of agentiality between algorithmic environments and humans are formed. At the center of the investigation are sensor technologies with a multi-medial and multi-modal orientation of virtual and physical lifeworlds, which culminate in VR technologies.
The exploration of sensory-based technologies deals with questions, such as: How are these technologies embedded in our environment? How do they shape our perception and access to our surroundings? Do distinctive forms of distributed sensing emerge from the collaboration of human and machine sensing? We will engage in practical hands-on examples and teaching in /through virtual reality as well as engage in the discourses of Critical Studies, Embodiment, as well as Post-and Transhumanism..
Through discussions, we will reflect on and explore these questions: in theory and practically. Finally, in small interdisciplinary groups, we will develop the first project ideas of employing sensory technologies in artistic practice.
Online Plattform: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNTqJi98=/?share_link_id=260405749002

Mariam Rafehi is an interdisciplinary designer & practice-based researcher in emergent media. She is exploring evolving digital learning cultures & participative methods for education design as part of the project “InKüLe” at the UdK. Prior to that, she worked with international partners on a research project focusing on potential applications of VR in education. Based on her research with immersive media, she has been a lecturer at Northwestern University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Rinah Wuzella is working on her PhD on machine sensing. She studied Media Studies at the University of Vienna and at the Université Paris Nanterre and Post-Conceptual Art Practices at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She completed a research semester at UC-Berkeley, CA and was then a research assistant at FAU-Erlangen-Nuremberg and also worked as a freelancer in the cultural field and freelance lecturer at Bauhaus Universität Weimar and Filmuniversity Babelsberg, Potsdam.