Announcing BCNM's Spring 2025 Conference Grant Recipients
The Berkeley Center for New Media is thrilled to provide small grants to our graduate students to help them share their innovative research at the premiere conferences in their field. We look forward to seeing the work of these students spread across the globe!
Zina Wang
Modern Language Association
The Funeral of Big Data: Labour and Amnesia
Wuxi’s “Ceremony for the Destruction of Pandemic-related Personal Data,” the largest of its kind in China which sprouted after the loosening of COVID-19 policies in early 2023, was broadcasted in front of a big screen at the Municipal Big Data Center. After a fake progress bar moved toward 100%, the city’s leadership celebrated the “lawful erasure of one billion entries (1.7 terabyte) of identity-annotated data collected through 40 or so government service applications.” The system of Pandemic Big Data sets forth a theory of labour between commodified or politically abstracted data exchange and data-generating or consuming activities such as bar- scanning, screening, and self-reporting. This distinction between circulation and production underlies Marx’s distinction between abstract (dead) and concrete (living) labour. Living labour is compelled to abstract itself for self-reproduction, thereby also reproducing capital.
The Wuxi ceremony thus appears a symptomatic paradox: the self-reproduction of Pandemic Big Data (its infinite expansion as self-valorising abstraction) generates the internal obstacle to its reproduction (the immanent limit to its infinite expansion). The destruction ceremony serves, I argue, a dissociative amnesia of the system of Big Data for its own further expansion. Wuxi, like many other Chinese governmental entities, has rather significantly increased personal data collection capacities after the Pandemic. This “funeral of Big Data,” on the other hand, appeals to the dissociative actuality of the social relation and the asocial source of commodification (un-valorised practical activities) to fake a cure to its self- splitting tendency. Through archival work on the Ceremony and Wuxi’s Big Data branch and theoretical engagement with Ray Brassier and Reza Negarestani on Inhuman Capitalism, I show how the city attempted, and failed to obliviate the disjunct between practices of living labour and activities of abstracted data exchange in the ever-closely-netted corporate and governmental infrastructures.
Arya Vishin
Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium
Words, Words, Words: The Politics of Language in Haider as Hamlet Adaptation
I will present a chapter from my honors thesis, which examines the politics of language in Vishal Bhardwaj’s 2014 film Haider, an adaptation of Hamlet set in 1990s Kashmir. Methodologically, I draw inspiration from the Kashmiri folk theater bhand pather, an improvised form that adapts basic set plots in a variety of local and national languages to respond to contemporary Kashmiri social issues. I examine the ways that Haider’s movements between Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, and English (and others) work in conjunction with remixed plot points from Hamlet to suggest political and revolutionary potentialities beyond the text of the script; it responds to Kashmir’s occupation through the use of language itself, transforming Hamlet into a sort of bhand in the process. This particular chapter, "Bulbul-e-Bismil," explores the song-sequence "Bismil" both as an adaptation of Hamlet's "mousetrap" sequence and in continuity with representations of Kashmir in Bollywood and Hindi cinema. It dually evokes a distinctly "Indian" cinematic tradition while subverting its "Indianness" through the scene's use of Urdu poetic traditions and Kashmiri theatrical traditions. In conjunction with the way the focal point of the scene shifts Hamlet's aim of eliciting a guilty reaction from Claudius to Haider's aim of awakening his mother Ghazala to the truth of his father's death, the film makes a statement for the need to "notice" rather than to "expose" the atrocities occurring in Kashmir.
Tianyu Zou
Art, Research, and Creation Opus
Étude - for 8 Musicians
This étude integrates the composer's previous explorations of sonic dimensions in instrumental works, consolidating them into this piece. The work treats the selected instruments as a cohesive whole, transforming the orchestra into a human-constructed synthesizer within this context. Each instrument assumes a distinct role in shaping sound, such as generating various waveforms and layers of noise.
Additionally, the composer incorporates theatrical elements, aiming to dramatize the pursuit of musical expressiveness to its extremes—a form of externalized expression.
Tonya Nguyen
Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
"It Doesn’t Actually Feel Very Mutual:" How Technology Impacts the Values of Mutual Aid Groups in Practice
Social movement organizations, such as mutual aid groups, rely on technology to increase their influence, meet immediate needs, and address systemic inequalities. In this paper, we examine the role of technology in moments of crisis and the balance mutual aid groups must strike when relying on tools imbued with values, some of which may be antithetical to their own. Through a qualitative study with mutual aid volunteers in the United States, we found that mutual aid groups’ values, such as solidarity, security, and co-production, are prioritized as they navigate adopting technology. However, while technology can streamline logistics and enhance visibility for mutual aid groups, we argue that the adoption of existing technologies and conventions of practice can erode opportunities for building solidarity, present challenges for accountability, and exacerbate pre-existing social exclusions. Our results show how reliance on technology can present tensions for mutual aid groups aiming to enact their values.
Irene Franco Rubio
American Studies Association: Late-Stage American Empire?
ROUNDTABLE: Coalition Building for Collective Liberation: Ethnic Studies, Abolition, & Cross Movement Solidarity
Building long-term power in movements for mass liberation requires forging coalitions between immigrant justice and racial justice efforts, aligning strategies to disrupt systems of incarceration, detention, and deportation simultaneously. This discussion explores the necessity of cross-movement collaboration, emphasizing the shared struggle against the late-stage American empire and the importance of forming coalitions in movements for collective liberation.
How can we build meaningful coalitions that transcend academia to advocate for social justice? Ethnic Studies methods, pedagogy, and community-engaged work are critical to resisting the late-stage American empire. This roundtable session will explore how we can build solidarity as authors, academics, and organizers in ways that extend beyond our academic institutions.
Since its inception in 1968, Ethnic Studies has been attacked for its commitment to racial and social justice. Under the current administration, it is imperative that, as scholars and activists, we continue to advocate for racial and migrant justice and utilize the field of Ethnic Studies as a mechanism to achieve this change.
Coalitions that transcend academic spaces are necessary for building collective and inclusive movements that recognize our shared struggles in resistance against interlocking systems of oppression. We will explore foundational elements of movement building, how we can articulate new modes of knowledge production, and imagine futures made possible through shared solidarity.
Lee Crandall
American Association of Geographers
Plotting/(Counter)plotting Crypto Cities
In this presentation I analyze what I call “cryptoeconomic imaginaries” in economic geography via Sylvia Wynter’s concept of “plotting” as praxis. Cryptocurrency is increasingly becoming a key plot device in consolidating VC tech power and imagining new post-plantation modes of land appropriation and urban development, codified in ideological manifestos, whitepapers, and new city design documents. These cryptoeconomic imaginaries are epitomized in the very real development plot of the so-called “network state.” The Network State is both a techno-utopian crypto manifesto and a strategic development plot for the continued accumulation of wealth and decision-making power, specifically funded by “crypto whales” and VC tech billionaires. Their funded projects include the East Solano Plan under company California Forever (Solano County, CA), Próspera (Honduras), Metropolis (Palau), and the decentralized Praxis Nation, Afropolitan, Itana, among others. Much like property developers before, these crypto capitalists view land as sites of mineral/resource extraction and cities as investment products, largely unconcerned with whom they displace and what ecologies are disturbed in the process. However, a politically diverse resistance to these “network state” projects is aided by digital technologies and social media. Engaging the plot-counterplot dialectic, scholars may turn a critical eye to the plotting strategies of the “network state” and related developments, while learning from resistance movements on the ground leveraging new media and critical technology, together mobilizing a type of (counter)plot work as method that values lands and lives beyond the individual private property profit motive.
Weiying Li
American Educational Research Association
Designing a Web-Based Food Justice and Photosynthesis Science Inquiry Unit with a Research Practice Partnership
Combining Justice-Centered Science Pedagogy (JCSP) and the Knowledge Integration (KI) framework, our research-practice partnership applied design-based research methods to design a web-based inquiry unit linking food justice with photosynthesis and ecosystems. We collected data from design artifacts, teacher interviews, and classroom observations with one teacher and 83 students. KI and JCSP-based activities and facilitation provided progress toward addressing design dilemmas of eliciting critical consciousness, designing appropriate complexity in science and social justice, and facilitating students to take actions. The unit helped students make changes and discuss complex social justice science issues, like how school gardens can create access to fresh produce for predominantly communities of color in Oakland that have few grocery stores due to redlining and discriminatory policies.
Lydia Millhon
Congreso Internacional Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana
Un precursor concreto: Nicolás Guillén y su poesía en Cuba y Brasil del siglo XX
El poeta afrocubano Nicolás Guillén utilizó la heterogeneidad lingüística, la sintaxis sonora y la semántica visual para representar lo afrocubano y distanciarse de la producción cultural tradicional. Su praxis intermedial, que mezclaba la música, la poesía y la política, exhibe su inmersión en discursos no solamente cubanos sino también transatlánticos. A la vez, su poesía tuvo un impacto documentado en países como Brasil. Esta ponencia explora la medida en que la poesía material de Guillén anticipa la poesía concreta brasileña, también conocida por su experimentación con la discursividad y la corporeidad de la lírica, el sonido y la imagen. Se argumentará que, como precursor potencial del arte concreto, Guillén centra la experiencia afrodiaspórica y desestabiliza el dominio europeo dentro de esta práctica, lo cual desafía las clasificaciones rígidas del arte concreto y sugiere negociaciones más matizadas de raza, identidad y nación.
Kayla van Kooten
Association for Asian American Studies
Talking Turks & Talahons: Towards a Theory of German Techno-Orientalism
Much of our understanding of the intersection between Orientalism and technology has focused on images of high-tech East Asian megacities. Media scholars and Asian/Asian-American Studies scholars have aptly taken discussions and discourses surrounding these images into works such as Techno-Orientalism (2015). This paper aims to extend theories of Techno-Orientalism well established in other disciplines into German literature and media. Through an analysis of ETA Hoffman’s “The Automata” and the recent TikTok trend of “Talahons,” I make the argument that cultural anxiety and mystified imagery surrounding technology in Germany has gone hand in hand with xenophobic attitudes, particularly towards Middle Eastern migration. In ETA Hoffmann’s short story “The Automata” (1814), one of the central figures is a multilingual automaton called “The Talking Turk” that becomes the talk of the town as it fascinates those who interact with its uncanny ability to tell accurate fortunes. Comparably, in Summer 2024 the song “Verknallt in einen Talahon” entered the German music charts as a response to popular TikTok memes surrounding the word “talahon.” Ranked this year’s German youth word of the year in an annual competition put on by Langenscheidt Publishing House, the word Talahon comes from the Arabic word “Ta3la hon,” meaning “let’s go,” but has now come to refer to a stereotype for teenagers who wear fake designer, hangout aimless in city centers, and are likely from immigrant families. With these two case studies, I argue that by using the combined frameworks of technology and orientalism shows a level of mystery surrounding both the Middle East and technological developments.
Hila Mor
Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Craft–Tech in Industry: What is the Role of HCI in the Merging of Crafts and Technology
What is Craft? While it can have sharper boundaries in traditional disciplines, in the context of HCI it can be a fuzzy term. Continuously changing with development of technologies and new cultural and technological practices of making, HCI is pushing Craft out of its traditional definition and into new landscapes. In this paper we review the different approaches of HCI towards the merging of Craft and technology and the sub-communities that are working to define the role of HCI in local and global technological processes. Craft is traditionally considered as a contrasting process to industrial manufacturing: the personal, tailored “one-of” products versus the mass-produced generalized products. But computational design and digital fabrication processes have brought the rich affordances of Craft into industrial spaces of cutting edge technology. How can HCI contribute to this realm? Through HCI works in the past two decades we are exploring how HCI can influence and engage with industry to merge Craft and Technology in meaningful ways.
Connie Gu
Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
When AI Tells Their Story: Researchers’ Reactions to AI-Generated Podcasts as a Tool for Communicating Research
Podcasts have been recognized as an accessible and engaging medium for education and science communication. Recent advances in generative AI have led to the development of tools that transform science communication by summarizing complex research for broader audiences. However, little research has explored original authors’ perspectives and reactions to these tools, leaving gaps in understanding their views on accurate representation of their work. Through interviews with 10 authors from 9 different disciplines, our study examines authors’ perspectives on the accuracy, effectiveness, and role of AI-generated podcasts in engaging both academic and general audiences. The study also explores their reflections on the opportunities and risks these tools present, both for broader audiences and for authors themselves, along with their ideas for improving the design. By centering authors’ perspectives, this study aims to provide insights for designing AI-assisted science communication systems that respect the integrity of academic work while enhancing accessibility.