We’ll meet synchronously on Zoom.
To Prepare for Today:
- Deborah Lupton, “Materializing Data” in Data Selves: More-than-Human Perspectives (Polity, 2020): 44-73 [apologies for the scan quality; it’s hard to access books + scanners during a pandemic!].
- Supplemental: more resources on “data collection and generation” in our Zotero repository.
Today’s Agenda:
5 – 7 pm ET: Reflecting on our self-tracking exercise, we’ll consider: what constitutes “data”? And now that we’ve gathered all this data without a particular agenda or hypothesis, what critical concepts have proven salient — and what critical frameworks might inform our future data-collection efforts? Profs Luka, Markham, and Mattern will each present a 20-minute talk, followed by a 20-minute exercise, to offer some relevant critical frameworks that will ideally shape our work next week and throughout the semester.
Break
7:15-8:00 p.m.: We’ll present Exercise #2, Media Fast, due Monday, January 11, and answer your questions.
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Exercise #2 (the weekend exercise)
Below, read about the tasks and deliverables of exercise #2. To refresh your memory of the general background, see text from Jan 5
Tasks and Deliverables for Exercise #2: The Media Fast
Sometime in the next two days, find a 24 hour period to take a break – a fast – from all digital media consumption. This exercise should “hurt” a bit in order to work effectively, so you need to define digital media or social media consumption in such a way that it is radical to suddenly stop using it for 24 hours.
You may choose any 24 hour period of time (it must be 24 consecutive hours). You might want to notify your networks (parents, profs, bosses, friends, etc.). Emergency or work use is allowed. Cheating? That’s up to you, but if you do, you should definitely use your ethnographer’s perspective to reflect on why you are cheating.
The specific steps and tasks:
- Before you begin your media fast, create Vlog #1 (2-5 minute) discussing the question: “How do you feel about this media fast?” (due before class on January 11)
- During your media fast, write fieldnotes in your research journal, create some visual documentation by drawing, making photos, videos, etc.
- In addition to fieldnotes, write at least two brain dumps (see Tips and Tricks). The prompt for the brain dumps may be open-ended or suggested during the class meeting on Jan 8. If open, they could be could be your observations regarding what this person who is taking a media fast – i.e., you! – is doing and thinking. It could also be in response to a question that you (the ethnographer ‘you’) ask of you (the participant ‘you’). (due before class on January 11)
- At some point in the midst of the fast, you should record Vlog #2 (2-5 minutes), based on two questions, “How does this feel?” OR “What is going on here?” The first question is more personal, and the second is more analytical/intellectual, based on your perspective as an ethnographer. (due before class on Jan 11)
- Submit Vlog 1, Vlog 2, and your two “brain dumps” before class on January 11.
- New School submission instructions: please label your files so I can identify you and your work – e.g., MatternShannon_Exercise1_Vlog1 or MatternShannon_Exercise2_BrainDump1 – and upload it to this private dropbox. Your classmates won’t be able to see your assignments. These submissions primarily serve as an accountability mechanism: Professor Mattern won’t be commenting on your work at this time – you’ll receive feedback when you submit your workshop dossiers in a few weeks! – but we do want to make sure you’re engaging with the exercises, since each stage builds on the one prior, and because this work is designed to prepare you to engage responsibly in independent research.
- U of T students will upload their content to the class quercus (Methods A exercises assignment page or discussion page, depending on whether you want to share with other students).
Have questions? Share them on our discussion board!
After the fast has ended and you’ve had some time to recover, record Vlog #3 (This will be completed and submitted during class meeting on Jan 11). Instructors will provide a specific question to prompt your reflections.