The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

In this episode, I spoke with Chris Gilliard (@hypervisible) about AI’s encroachment on universities and what this means for collaboration — i.e. learning, writing, thinking and feeling. This conversation puts out a warning of sorts to universities adopting AI given that, as a technology, it is built off of stolen materials, relies on extraction and colonial labour practices, is racist, misogynist and transphobic in its outputs, and terrible for the environment — all issues the university claim to value and fight against? Recorded Dec 11, 2024. Released Dec 16, 2024. “ChatGPT Should Not Exist” by David Golumbia (Dec 14, 2022)https://davidgolumbia.medium.com/chatgpt-should-not-exist-aab0867abace“Practico-inertia” by Rob Horning (March 1, 2024)https://robhorning.substack.com/p/practico-inertia “Critical keywords of AI in education” by Ben Williamson (November 8, 2024 )https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/ “Big AI Companies Need Higher Ed … but Does Higher Ed Need Them?” by Collin Bjork (Dec 2, 2024)https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/12/02/universities-must-beware-reliance-big-ai-opinion

It was a real honour and joy to speak with someone whose work has so significantly shaped my own (and many of us writing about data centers): Jennifer Holt joined me for a chat about US cloud policy. The Cloud is understood in this episode through the lens of policy, which means we grapple with who owns data, its infrastructures and our data futures. We also talked a bit about what the latest US elections might mean for Big Tech... Recorded Nov 20, 2024. Released Nov 25, 2024.Cloud Policy: A History of Regulating Pipelines, Platforms, and Datahttps://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262548069/cloud-policy/ CMSW podcast: Jennifer Holt, “Cloud Policy: Anatomy of a Regulatory Crisis”https://cmsw.mit.edu/podcast-jennifer-holt-cloud-policy-anatomy-regulatory-crisis/

Listen to the data center's hum with your feet first... on this episode, Trent Wintermeier and I discuss what it means to absorb sound through the body and "hear" vibrations with and through your limbs and ears. We discuss what this means for folks living near data centers, especially in places imagined as kinds of sacrifice zones. Recorded Oct 9, 2024. Release Nov 11, 2024.Trent Wintermeierhttps://trentwintermeier.cargo.siteAffective Footprintshttps://www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/affective-footprints

In this episode, I have a conversation with Remmelt Ellen from AI Safety Camp. We discuss AI safety and his 44-page book Artifical Bodies outlining AI harms from the perspective of someone really grappling with the ethics, hype, and harms of the industry and beyond. Recorded Oct 4, 2024. Released Oct 28, 2024.Artificial Bodies https://workflowy.com/s/artificial-bodies/znDloerXJaEQvKF6#/846236876b45AI Safety Camphttps://www.aisafety.camp/

Everyone should read Lisa Yin Han's Deepwater Alchemy! It's a stunningly well written book about how we come to value the ocean through various extractive mediations. Recorded Sept 27, 2024. Released Oct 14, 2024.Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the SeafloorHow underwater mediation has transformed deep-sea spaces into resource-rich frontiershttps://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517915940/deepwater-alchemy

Joana Chicau is a designer, researcher and coder, with a background in choreography and performance. We had a truly delightful chat about how dance can make you understand data differently. Recorded Sept 13, 2024. Released Sept 23, 2024.Websitehttps://joanachicau.com/about.html Publicationshttps://researchers.arts.ac.uk/2383-joana-chicau/publications Choreographing Youhttps://re-coding.technology/choreographing-you/From Individual Discomfort to Collective Solidarity: Choreographic Exploration of Extractivist Technology https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378139744_From_Individual_Discomfort_to_Collective_Solidarity_Choreographic_Exploration_of_Extractivist_Technology

It was such an honour to be in conversation with Siobhan Angus about what can only be describe as a masterpiece: her book Camera Geologica. Recorded August 8, 2024. Released Sept 9, 2024.Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photographyhttps://www.dukeupress.edu/camera-geologica

Alina Utrata and I have a conversation about billionaires conquering space for personal pleasure, in the pursuit of energy sources or minerals, or, to push forward a longtermist interplanetary movement. Alina explains how when we think about outer space as "empty", we unwittingly thinking territorially -- an incredibly valuable contribution to critical space scholarship. Recorded May 20. Released June 24, 2024.Engineering Territory: Space and Colonies in Silicon Valleyhttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/engineering-territory-space-and-colonies-in-silicon-valley/5D6EA4D306E8F3E0465F4A05C89454D6