From Individual Discomfort to Collective Solidarity: Choreographic Exploration of Extractivist Technology

We invite human-computer interaction and technology practitioners to join us in the collaborative exploration of discomfort associated with technology in the age of surveillance capitalism. With the help of body-based exercises inspired by choreography we will articulate the discomforts of living and designing with extractivist technology. Our studio is aimed at technology practitioners of a broad range of expertise who have experienced discomfort in relation to data- driven extractivist systems.

In the first part of the studio, participants will share their experiences of resisting such systems as users and technology creators. In the second part, participants will engage in an ideation session to propose forms of countering existing technologies.

Embodied methods and choreographic approaches will be used for making digital discomfort tangible and for guiding the exploration of the topics at stake. As an outcome, participants will collectively design a toolbox to conceptualise discomfort in a tangible, embodied way, and form a network to continue discuss these matters post-studio in an online community discussion group.