Medien, Interfaces und implizites Wissen

Die Beiträge des Heftes zeigen auf, wie sich das Verhältnis von Medien und implizitem Wissen unter den Bedingungen des Internets der Dinge, im Kontext der Robotik oder in Bezug auf ökonomische Fragen ausgestaltet. Erörtert werden dabei vorrangig Fragestellungen, die an die Interfaces dieser zeitgenössischen Medientechnologien gerichtet werden können. Vor dem Hintergrund medien- und interfacetheoretischer Überlegungen wird aufgezeigt, welche medienwissenschaftlichen Konsequenzen sich für die Analyse dieser kulturellen Phänomene und gesellschaftlichen Felder ergeben

"Girls are like Glass": Situated Knowledges of Syrian Refugee Women on Datafication and Transparency

This chapter focuses on Syrian refugee women as data subjects in the bureaucratic system of the Dutch immigration services (IND). In an increasingly datafied society many aspects of governance are becoming subject to some form of datafication. The same goes for the decision-making process of the immigration services. Recent research on these processes has mainly focussed on data practices by the European Union in order to protect "Fortress Europe" or use by Syrian refugees themselves of social media and telephone. Media and social research on immigration practices has mainly focussed on inequality and the representation of refugees, in society, in policy-making and in the process of integration. This chapter combines a top-down perspective (data system) with a bottom-up perspective (data subjects) on the IND’s data system by integrating an analysis of data and information about Syrian refugee women present in the IND system with the experiences of the women that provided the information. The result is a moving as well as very informative collection of responses, experiences and insights of five Syrian women refugee women who are in, or have been through the IND’s decision-making process and who speak back to the system, producing alternative knowledge and representations to the dominant and mainstream stories of migration and integration in the Netherlands

Neue Rechte und Universität

Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter, Dr. Pablo Abend und Prof. Dr. Benjamin Beil sind Herausgeber der Reihe. Die Herausgeber*innen der einzelnen Hefte sind renommierte Wissenschaftler*innen aus dem In- und Ausland. AG Siegen Denken: Pablo Abend, Armin Beverungen, Marcus Burkhardt, Timo Kaerlein, Tatjana Seitz, Nadine TahaIn dieser Ausgabe der "Navigationen" sammeln wir Ressourcen gegen die Vereinnahmung der Universität durch die so genannte Neue Rechte. Auslöser für das Themenheft sind die Geschehnisse rund um ein Seminar, das im Wintersemester 2018/19 unter dem Titel „Denken und Denken lassen. Zur Philosophie und Praxis der Meinungsfreiheit“ an der Universität Siegen angeboten wurde.Das Seminar wurde von einer Vorlesungsreihe flankiert, in der „dezidiert konservative oder rechte Denker“ eine Bühne bekamen, u.a. Marc Jongen von der AfD, und der Autor Thilo Sarrazin. Ein zentrales Anliegen dieser Ausgabe ist es, die Siegener Ereignisse zu dokumentieren, wissenschaftlich aufzuarbeiten und in verschiedenen Hinsichten zu kontextualisieren: diskursstrategisch, geographisch, historisch und politisch. Hierzu versammelt das Heft Beiträge diverser Forschungsdisziplinen – explizit auch von Vertreter*innen derjenigen Disziplinen, deren Existenzrecht von Teilen der Siegener Vortragenden in Zweifel gezogen wird. Um die Diversität der betroffenen Zugänge zu repräsentieren, sind über die Medienwissenschaft hinaus Beiträge aus der Islamwissenschaft, den Gender Studies, der Linguistik und der Soziologie im Heft vertreten

Presence in a Pocket. Phantasms of Immediacy in Japanese Mobile Telepresence Robotics

The paper addresses prospects of Japanese mobile telepresence robotics where small anthropomorphic devices are designed to act as intermediaries between remote interlocutors. First, an emic perspective of involved scientists and engineers is presented, focusing on example technologies being developed at the Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab in Kyoto (Japan), particularly a „cellphone-type tele-operated android [...] transmitting human presence“ called Elfoid. It represents an attempt to get “behind the veil of the machine” (Sekiguchi/Inami/Tachi 2001, about their RobotPHONE prototype which uses a similar concept) in that it is supposed to act as a solid substitute for a dialog partner through evoking a feeling of presence (sonzaikan in Japanese philosophy, the feeling that someone is sharing the same physical space). In such undertakings, specific utopian ideals of communication become apparent. Paradoxically, the high-tech developments aim at constituting seemingly immediate interactions, preferably bypassing any potentially troublesome interface. The existence of a phantasm of immediacy (Bolter/Grusin 2000) can be traced back to decisive moments in media history and belongs to the central promises of new technological interfaces. Interestingly, the engineers’ statements reveal a latent technophobia, an ambition to overcome the limitations of physical devices altogether and to move on to more direct means of communicative exchange (including the mythical dimension of telepathy). Two questions are of particular concern: 1. On what different levels does the notion of immediacy operate? Not only does it refer to a spiritual ideal of unmediated communion, but it also influences practical decisions in interface design. “Natural” and “Tangible” User Interfaces are the result of a practice of disguise in that they mask their factual hypermediacy to allow for a seamless knotting up of real and mediated environments. 2. What is the relationship between media and the immediate? The concept of immediacy has so far been met with an almost univocal intellectualist disdain on the part of media theorists. The reason for this rejection is simple enough: If one takes ideas of immediacy serious, the self-image of a whole field of study is called into question. The paper thus attempts to provide a contribution to the question of how media build on notions of immediacy. Any theoretical attempt at describing their operations should take into account the intricate relationship between media and the immediate

Playing with Personal Media: On an Epistemology of Ignoranc

Mobile devices are ubiquitous and increasingly an integral part of everyday media usage. One remarkable development in the field of personal media (smartphones, tablet computers, etc.) is the trivialization of their interfaces and appearance, espe-cially when compared to the complexity of the underlying software and hardware. The iPhone and its successors trump with usability, they offer simple and seeming-ly direct access to many functions. Software can be handled with basic hand gestures or voice control, no expert knowledge is required to use the devices. Rather, current apps and operating systems are designed for a playful approach that favours unbiased exploration. The article investigates forms of the trivial in both device materiality and interface design from a media studies perspective. Pertinent philosophical positions on human-technology relationships by Günther Anders and Hans Blumenberg are discussed to explore the ramifications of a highly productive epistemology of ignorance. A focus is placed upon the process of blackboxing, a technique of invisi-bilization common to media technologies wherein the social and material prerequisites of a given artefact are hidden from users. The black box also serves as a model of thought to offer a way of analysing unknown complex systems as proposed in cybernetics, and it has more recently been picked up and refashioned in significant ways in actor-network theory. Playing with personal media is situated between the poles of user infantilization and the freedom of exploring new practices. Triviality in interface design is am-biguous in that it denies insight into more fundamental processes but at the same time creates a space for playful variation not requiring professional knowledge. The article aims to negotiate between positions of elitist criticism and affirmative technophilia, which are widespread in the discourse on mobile devices