In parallel with the storytelling themes, I’m asking Who are the Storytellers? as a way of proactively problem-solving some intersectional issues in the research project. For example, key literature regarding my fieldwork with Decidim Barcelona has a very limited range of authors in terms of gender. In contrast, during my fieldwork, I could see many women authoring and creating Decidim Barcelona. In order to recognise a more accurate range of authors and creators, I am working with a broader idea of authorship in my research, and developing the profile of the Storytellers alongside the Storytelling themes.
To be continued…
Storytelling Research #1
I’m submerged in the analysis phase of my Collective Intelligence PhD and I’m enjoying the feeling of getting intimate with the concepts, turning them over in my mind’s eye and diving into the thoughts of the people who allowed my research to enter their world: the organising team of Decidim, the offline-online participatory democracy project of the City of Barcelona.
Work will start going public soon and I’m excited to develop storytelling tactics to give the material the best chance of travelling on it’s own two feet.
I’m working on three storytelling devices to carry all the more technical, formal and less accessible detail (outlined below). Meanwhile, I’m also exploring the question of Who are the Storytellers? as a way of addressing intersectionality in an integrated and pro-active way.
… Storytelling Research #1Cold Catches Fire
Distributed Messages :: Linguistic Racism
Left-Right Slipperiness
https://www.viewpointmag.com/2017/03/28/the-darkness-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-artificial-intelligence-and-neoreaction/
Boris Johnson’s new cabinet gives us our latest example of left-right political travel. From circles around the Revolutionary Communist Party to the inner circle of the Boris Johnson’s new libertarian Cabinet:
… Left-Right SlipperinessVisualising Swarms :: Google @ Barbican AI exhibition
When Bees Get Sleepy
We Will Not Betray The Dead :: Grenfell :: words by @Lowkey0nline
Powerful words from artist @Lowkey0nline
Link for Grenfell Silent Walk:
https://www.facebook.com/GrenfellSilentWalk/
Link for Grenfell Silent Walk Two Years On:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2408072305910220/
Link for Lowkey: https://twitter.com/lowkey0nline?lang=en
Learning Gephi from Zero #4: conceptual networks in Gephi and Arc diagrams
I have some relatively advanced work on a “universe” of concepts around Collective Intelligence. Many very different politics surface in a collective intelligence space, from a Brexity “Will of the People” to Zapatista inspired swarming strategies. Mapping out these concepts has many uses, and potentially it help us navigate the kind of “cognitive slippage” between left and right popular approaches. For any map to be accessible and actually usable for a wide range of people, it needs to be attractive, intuitive and easy to use. Data visualisation techniques seem key here, which leads us to Gephi, and also “Arc Diagram” code which I found through the brilliant Dictionary of the Revolution project.
… Learning Gephi from Zero #4: conceptual networks in Gephi and Arc diagramsHow do you define collective intelligence?
Many versions of collective intelligence are active around us. From the social media Hive Mind, to wikipedia’s Wisdom of the Crowd, to the ant colonies under our feet, to Extinction Rebellion’s swarming tactics, to talk of citizen assemblies solving Brexit or even climate change. To name but a few. My PhD aims to organise different conceptualisations and manifestations of collective intelligence into written and visual meta-analysis. In the wider video work, I am also working with audio-visual analysis and am currently exploring “The Sound of the Hive”. In other words, exploring an understanding of collective intelligence and the hive, through sound and patterns of sounds.
… How do you define collective intelligence?