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Digital Data Gathering & Changing Ways of Knowing I: Witnessing + Proof + Human Rights
How do digital data gathering capabilities change what we can know, prove, and remember? Researchers and activists working with open-source data, satellite imagery, and citizen documentation explore evidence-building in the age of disinformation.
Speakers
Has worked since 2011 collecting, verifying, and investigating citizen-generated data as evidence of human rights violations in the Syrian conflict. Supported journalists, lawyers, and activists using verified data for investigations and criminal case-building. Formerly with Tactical Technology Collective and as open-source investigator for Human Rights Watch and Bellingcat.
Human rights researcher from Lebanon documenting abuses and developments in the MENA region, with a specialization in missing persons related to the Syrian conflict since 2011. Collaborates with Syrian family associations and civil society organizations, develops advocacy campaigns on rule of law, and applies a feminist lens to investigating disappearances and promoting justice.
Architect and researcher at the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, where he convenes the MA studio in Forensic Architecture. Explores spatial politics, visual cultures, and the political ecologies of migration and borders. Since 2011, leads the Forensic Oceanography project investigating the Mediterranean border regime and co-founded the WatchTheMed platform. His work has been used as evidence in courts of law. Forthcoming: Agitated Waters (Zone Books, co-authored with Charles Heller).
Discussant
Director for International Freedom of Expression at EFF, based in Berlin. Examines state and corporate censorship and their impact on culture and human rights, and leads Onlinecensorship.org. Has published in Motherboard, BuzzFeed, The Guardian, Quartz, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. Formerly at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.
About This Session
What does it look like to think, engage, and do research in this digital age? This session explores how digital data gathering capabilities — “open data,” user-generated images, cell tower data — are used by states, corporations, and citizens. We examine how researchers and activists collect, aggregate, and process digital data and “digital shadows.” In an age of disinformation, how do we know what we know, prove what we can prove, and remember what must be remembered?
Paired with seminar
Session 6 → Module III: Archive Fever: Documents, Objects & Images