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Drones: from past to future!

May 29, 2020Group 2

by basu19ab@student.cbs.dk

Today was already the final day of the European Summer Academy which meant we had our presentation. In this last blog post we want to take you through our journey this week by describing our presentation.

We started our presentation with Daniel giving an introduction of the topic by briefly discussing the history of drones. Then Yash took us through the different use cases of drone technology during this corona crisis. The rest of our presentation resembles our process this week, we explored learnings and insights from the different lectures and the feedback sessions from the professors. This brought us complete new insights and underlying behavioural aspects associated with the use of drones in our current society. So it really was an iterative process for us as a team both in regards to content as well as working together and this is also how we would like to present our project in this presentation. We discuss the panopticon view, deep dive into the drone's gaze and its impact on architecture. And then to end of our presentation we found a cool way to let everyone have a live drone experience.

We will now continue this blog post by describing what we discussed during our presentation, starting with

The history of drones

Drones have various synonyms that are widely used to describe the same concept. A general consensus is that any aerial vehicle that is controlled remotely or works autonomously and has no on board pilot is considered a drone. The concept of an unmanned aircraft has been around for centuries, dating back as far as 450 B.C. 

during which unmanned aircrafts were used by the Ming Dynasty in China. There are records of a wooden hawk and a crow shaped kite used for reconnaissance and bombing. Similarly, the emergence of modern drones as we know it stems from warfare. Research on the history of drone technology focuses on periods such as World Wars I and II as well as the Cold War, because during these times Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance were increasingly important. Furthermore, researchers argue that one of the most significant developments coming from the War on Terror by the United States is actually drone technology.

Nowadays, drone technology has far more use cases than just military applications. In our presentation we focus mostly on the emergence of commercial drones in the corona crisis.

Drone technology and Use cases

The main use cases for drones during the Covid Crisis have been:

1. Surveillance and Awareness 

Use of drones as to ensure social distancing norms are being followed 

2. Delivery

Delivery of essential goods such as test kits and medicinal supplies with minimum human contact

3. Disinfection

Spraying disinfectants on essential cargo and at crowds of people by modifying agricultural drones 

4. Virtual Travel

Creating a travel experience that people can enjoy while staying indoors, allowing them to experience their favorite locations in a more complete manner

Impact on Architecture

Surveillance is possible even without using a drone. In the field of architecture, high-rise buildings become potential for surveillance in the public space. Living in such a building gives the spectator a power to observe and gaze at people in the street. In contrast to the usage of a drone, people in the street can hardly notice that they are being watched because there is no technology involving sound which would suggest that there is something unexpected happening around them. On the other hand, when you see a drone flying on the outer side of your window, you probably draw a curtain, but is that a sufficient solution? As any other technology, usage of drones raises many new social issues. 

Indeed, having a drone gives people the power to observe and survey spots which were out of reach before. The verticality of a drone offers great sceneries and views of roofs which used to be visually unattractive and are often hidden. But some buildings even seem like they were designed to be seen from above. Some say that the rise of drones will change how buildings are constructed in order to be attractive from all sorts of angles.

But another aspect to be considered is the building transparency. The buildings should be redesigned not for human patterns of vision but for how drones are able to see, because nobody wants the drones to crash into buildings like birds do. With the growing emergence of drones and their development, the top view will matter more and more. The prediction states that eventually we’ll be entering buildings differently and maybe from their roofs since we might be using drones as means of transportation. 

People Reactions at drones’ flying

People wanted to make sure that the technology was being well regulated. So the drones regulation is a sort of resistance form for the people.

A drone that flies by sufficiently far away and has a clear and legitimate purpose does not cause people to interrupt their activities, and is not seen as problematic.(positive aspect)

Low-flying drones often interrupt social activities, and that current designs and regulations make it difficult to assess purpose and legitimacy, causing uncertainty and disturbance.(negative aspect)

Problems of spatial privacy become particularly acute when large drones overfly private gardens or houses at lower altitudes.

Ant experiment

Because Florian told us to think and act like drones, I spent some time outside taking pictures about the gaze of a drone. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to reach a very high place where I could take those pictures, so I decided to switch the perspective, and instead of trying to record people, I used insects, ants in particular.  I found out that ants, like many human people, haven’t tried to get away from me, to hide from me, to get away from the drone who was flying above them. I think that you can use drones to study in detail animals or other natural creatures or events without disturbing them.

Drones as a modern Panopticon 

• Omnipresence of surveillance 

• Imbalance of power 

We finished our presentation by giving everyone the opportunity to have a live drone experience, enabling people to have the drone’s gaze themselves through a live stream of Daniel operating his DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone.

We want to thank everyone who participated in the European Summer Academy for making this a memorable learning experience, especially the professors and guest lecturers!

0 Comments8 Minutes

Is this a wake-up call? Or are we allowing a new level of surveillance into our lives?

May 29, 2020Group 1

by beatrice.schumacher@student.unisg.ch

Reflecting on a week on and around Zoom 

Everyday group meeting on Zoom captioned in a photo 

As this week comes to an end, we can start to reflect on the challenges this virtual Summer School has posed on us. Still digesting the digital “bombardment” that guided our paths this week, we conclude that it was both a very challenging but also very fascinating process to work with and via the technology that dictates our every move - Zoom.

Starting from different approaches and perspectives on how digital technologies such as headphones, the television, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom effects our lives, we together embarked on a common journey to answer the question: how does the digital technology Zoom, changes the way we organize and the way we are organized in the current pandemic?

Digiphrenia (Rushkoff) partly hit us already after the first day’s lectures. Quickly we realized that we had to take responsibility to work hard to both process the information consumed through Zoom, and to work with the digital entanglement of Zoom. Using different academic methods and personal reflections, we tried to tear Zoom into pieces to put together a holistic picture. We were not aware of how hard it would be to constantly work with the medium that is in front of our faces, and through which we perceive each other every day from morning to evening. Following a contextual analysis of the technological, historical, and societal perspective, we tried to grasp the power of Zoom as a third party. Leaving us isolated, and without the luxury of normal human interaction, the technology poses an immense influential power onto our interactions, and the ability to build relationships. How did we come to accept this new normal in which the digital room of Zoom is not just a lecture but also the same classroom where you talk with your professors, you also meet your parents, talk gossip with your friends, go to the toilet, or date someone? And how could we break free and question this new normality? Then on Wednesday evening we experienced a breakthrough: with the “dancing class” we saw what was possible when we completely stepped out of the normal usage patterns exhibited on Zoom. Through this challenging task and the reinforcing workshop with Simon Denny, we were able to come up with the overall idea that we wanted to transport through our presentation:

We want to take students on a journey through this "new normal" and show them how much this deviates from our normal life and which affects not only the individual but also society can be observed.

The journey brought us to conclude six important aspects about Zoom that we want to explain and dissect to give a grasp of Zoom’s influence on our new normality:

Move away from the original purpose:

Zoom was intended to be a video-conferencing tool for the workplace. To replace in-person meetings and reduce traveling.

Change in Communication:

We are not able to use and understand body language, miss “heated” creative discussions and are finally left less satisfied with the outcomes.

Relationship Impact:

Personal relationships on an individual, spontaneous basis are less easy to form because we lack normal interaction (e.g. eating together).

Emotional Impact:

We feel anxious, lonely and little satisfied with what we do. For more check out this video one of our group members made: My emotions on Zoom

Third-party Relation:

Suddenly, even without being consciously perceived by us, there is a third-party player within our communication.

Power Play & Control:

While some artifacts of power are taken away (e.g. the corner office), overall there is a bigger bureaucracy with the scheduling and hosting of meetings. One host is in control of the others and can manage their reactions, while everybody can easily take videos or photos of the screen without the others knowledge.

The Corona crisis has thrown humankind in general, and we as students and professors into a temporary crisis – we are still not in a virtual classroom; we are actually in front of our screen looking and calling into the void. But this also offers a unique opportunity: either we can see this as a moment of realization and change, or the moment of accepting a new level of surveillance in our lives. Having had the opportunity to dive into the socio-technological entanglement of Zoom as part of our everyday life, we believe that we need more rules and adaptions in our use of Zoom and much more research on its impact and relevance. Thus, we want to call out to you! Wake up, reflect on your experience, and make a difference.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for the memories, your valuable insights, and the effort every one of you put into this week!

We know how tiring this week has been, so enjoy your long weekend, go out, meet people (if possible) and enjoy an Aperó. And always remember... even on Zoom, don’t be evil ;-)

Love, 

Alma, Bea, Davide, Karolina & Oskar

(For some lasting memory of Alma: Weird glitches on Zoom)

PS: For more information check out this collection of articles.

• On Zoom, and its impact in the current crisis:
  • Zoom Goes From Conferencing App to the Pandemic’s Social Network
  • How to run a continent via videolink
  • The lessons we are learning from Zoom
• On the world after COVID-19:
  • Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus
  • Who will be the winners in a post-pandemic economy?
  • The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days
• Some Zoom "glitches":
  • ‘Zoombombing’ Becomes a Dangerous Organized Effort
  • https://www.grahamcluley.com/uk-cabinet-zoom-meeting
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzakCwZUYHg
• The straining effects of Zoom:
  • Why Zoom video chats are so exhausting
• How to handle Zoom fatigue:
  • Zoom Fatigue: How to politely decline a call during quarantine
  • How to combat Zoom fatigue

0 Comments8 Minutes

Screen usage in a nutshell: From society to interpersonal relationships and effects on our brain.

May 29, 2020Group 3

by masa17ac@student.cbs.dk

Introduction

Our object is the screen. At the beginning we looked at four areas that each group member found exciting. These areas were quickly reduced to 3 sub-areas: The history of the screen, the perception of the screen and the cognitive processes of the screen. For a long time we found it a challenge to connect these areas with each other, but now we were able to create a main logic for the presentation. 

We want to start from a meta-level (the society), go over a macro-level (interpersonal relationships) and end with a micro-level (personal impact on our brain). Three questions follow this logic: What was the original intention behind the invention of the screen? How do people today perceive the relationship with their screens? And what is the effect of screen usage on our brain? 

Part one. History: What was the original intention behind the invention of the screen?

First, we pinpointed one key event in the history of personal computer - “Mother of all Demos” a landmark computer demonstration where Douglas Engelbart showcased personal computer in an almost 2-hour long presentation. Engelbart and his engineering team in the 60s had a vision to assist humanity in tackling the growing complexity and urgency of the rapidly progressing world through the introduction of a personal, multipurpose machine. This computer system was ideated as an augmentation tool of human intellect that could take over tasks of various complexity (including even the most trivial ones like making a shopping list) in order to open human intellectual capacities for something more complex and important. In this framework, human and computational technology evolve together in their constant “symbiosis” can facilitate the advent of revolutionary technological advancements and progress of human society. Moreover, the aspect of human collaboration was believed to be highly important and was facilitated through the introduction of collaborative tools- from real-time text editing to video conferencing. 

Making a computer personal in contrast to computational monoliths funded by the U.S. government that could be used only for a narrow list of purposes and usually not without a permission was believed to transform society, education, creativity, and the world as we knew it, making each person, on his own terms, self-reliant and free.

Part two. Perception: How do people today perceive the relationship with their screens? 

Screens have been associated with many negative associations in the past and words like digital detox were on everyone's lips. We wanted to find out if and how the relationship to our screens changed during the Corona period and if these changes could have an impact on the future. For this purpose we collected 6 interviews with a length of 30 minutes or more. We developed an interview guideline beforehand, which included very open questions in a first step in order to not influence the participants responses. In a second step, we asked more in-depth questions on specific topics that were of interest to us, for example data protection. Accordingly, the interviews themselves were also conducted by telephone or video call. 

What were the results? Firstly, it can be stated that the use of the screen has intensified for various reasons. The interviewees, who are already in professional life, now need the screen for all their work activities. Before the pandemic, their working life had consisted of many meetings, which have now been replaced by screen meetings. The majority of people find these screen meetings more efficient than personal meetings, because they do not have to travel to work or other locations. However, informal contact with the colleagues is being missed by almost all interview partners. Nobody would welcome the idea of only doing home office in the future. Nevertheless, there are those who would prefer only one day of Homeoffice in the future and others who would like four days of homeoffice.

As far as personal contact with family and friends is concerned, all participants agree that this cannot be replaced by screens. Among other things, because sharing a hot meal over a video call is not the same as sitting at a table. Regarding screen gaze, the participants were not worried at all. They want products that are tailored to them. But they all had concerns about their use of Instagram and wanted to reduce their time on that platform. However, they found the implementation extremely difficult. Because they referred to it as an addiction.

Part three. Cognitive processes: What is the effect of screen usage on our brain?

Something that is interesting to notice is that this perception of the reader depends on the structure of the page itself. Online pages and physical pages are presented to the person with two different layouts, which leads to two totally different experiences. What constitute a key point in screen reading is the distinctive environment in which the person is called to act on. The digital frame presents itself a stage, in which people are called to perform; therefore, much more choices and pathways are presented – and this is due to the presence of hypertextual links, authorial and publication info, other readers (with comments). The reader can decide to click on certain links, follow the suggestion of the writer to look up a particular study, to share a specific passage with friends, but also to just keep scrolling. All these aspects, of course, contribute to a different way to approach a text, that, according to some studies, leads to failing to engage in consolidation or integration processes regularly. In this sense, the thing about screen reading is that it pushes toward a different kind of process of decodification of content – and this is due to the fact that the artifact in use is different in comparison to the traditional one, with different features and different dimensions to be explored. 

As last thing, the possibility to enlarge the page, to go forward and backwards can give us the possibility to understand the material aspect of it. Each of us is experience this page (the blog page!) in different formats, which in turn lead us to a different perception of it. Someone might be reading it bigger, someone smaller; someone could be using a laptop and someone could be using a smartphone. And those are just few ways of portraying the same content. So isn't the screen just another object, with specific boundaries and features?

While studies conducted before 1992 have mostly shown that reading is slower and less attentive on screen rather than on paper, more recent studies may indicate that it is not as simple. First, it seems to show that reading online is now faster. However, although students may prefer reading online and feel that they perform better this way, research has shown that students actually get a deeper understanding of their readings on paper. So, what’s going on? How does the reading medium actually impact the way our body works? 

There is something about LED screens. This is especially relevant with the increase in use of LEDs in our screens, since they are considered more environment-friendly and energy efficient. While you may have heard a lot of complaints about blue light, I’m here to advocate in their favor! Blue light is actually great for your performance. It inhibits the production of melatonin, the molecule responsible for sleepiness. During the day, blue light may help you boost alertness and elevate your mood, all while improving your memory and cognitive functions. It also helps regulate your circadian cycles by maintaining your natural sleep cycles healthfully. You may now wonder why don’t we just consume blue light until there is no blue light left in the Universe? Well, as you may have guessed by now, blue light basically keeps your brain active. Consumed in the evening, it may negatively impact your circadian cycle, by tricking your brain into thinking that it is not time to sleep - when really, it is. Excessive exposure to blue light may also cause digital eyestrain, which you may experience with symptoms such as sore or irritated eyes and difficulty focusing. Finally (and not to scare you, but…) continued exposure to blue light may over time lead to damage to your retina, causing age-related vision degeneration issues. 

But let’s now have a look at how digital reading affects the way your brain works. Reading on a screen is associated with a specific reading pattern: you’ll spend more time browsing, scanning, keyword, one-time reading, non-linear reading, and reading more selectively rather than in-depth reading, and concentrated reading. This indicates that screens are more suited to concrete thinking, pinpointing facts and concrete details, while paper affords more abstract thinking. To sum up, if you want to remember the dates of a certain event, try to use a screen. On the contrary, if you need to remember why the event occurred or where, then reading it on paper might help. Additionally, screen reading may help remember (which is usually associated with shorter-term recalling) while students who read on paper rely most heavily on knowing rather than remembering, although they need to spend more time reading. 

The last interesting bit about how our brains work has to do with sense-making, and how our brains interpret what we read. I will keep it simple: a study managed to demonstrate (thanks to a bunch of students learning 150 nonsensical words) that the region of the brain that is activated for meaning-making is located in the visual word form area of the brain, located in the left side of the visual cortex. Basically, what goes on in there is a visual dictionary where people store loads of words that they can recognize instantly, without having to sound them (for example, because English is not your native language, you probably learned that CAR is a car, rather than learning that C-A-R is a car!). Ok, so what? What this study means, is that our brains are quicker at making sense of things when it can create a mental visualization of that thing, which means that text is perceived by our brains like a physical landscape of words. This translates into our reading patterns, meaning that we tend to process information faster if we can map them into a physician structure. See where I’m getting at? In the same way that you may remember the bus stop because it is located near the bakery, itself located after the post office, itself located in front of the library (...), you remember textual elements better if you can locate them. That’s why reading on paper may increase your recollection capacities, although this may not be true for all types of information. That’s also why scrolling may disrupt your memory and focus: when scrolling, you don’t realize how many pages you went through: you lose your reference points. This may also partially explain why digital reading has been shown to lead to haptic dissonance. Reading on-screen disrupts intuitive navigation patterns. As you only see one page at a time, you can’t locate how far you are in your reading with, for example, the thickness of the book. You can’t physically feel where it starts, where it ends, how far you have gone, your reading pace - all location cues that help to recall information. Additionally, as readers are used to books and paper material, they expect a certain texture, smell, weight. When these expectations are not meant by the digital experience, it creates an unpleasant experience, which may among others lead to slower adoption rates of ebook technologies. 

Conclusion

Across the years of the boom of personal computers users grew to develop their own personal relationships with them. Though initially computer screens were seen as a space for work and task management, it did not take long until the appearance of first screen-based interactive games, artistic implementations, and the communication technologies of the World Wide Web. With private investment and big corporations taking over, screens became an integral part of our life practices, whether work, private communication, creative activities, or entertainment. The medium-specific properties have generated the medium-specific practices which grew to be inextricably linked to it. 

It became evident that the human interactions with the screen is by no means a one-way action, rather we find ourselves in constant feedback-based interaction. Screens and computer technology have been gradually shaping out modes of interactions, cognitive processes and strategies, that has resulted in adaptive changes. From 60s idea of human-computer symbiosis as a collaboration of two organisms, screens have penetrated our life practices to the point that we can figuratively imagine them as our to physical and mental prosthesis and us as cyborgs that unawares percove this technology as the extensions of ourselves.  

0 Comments17 Minutes

Final day: Reflections on the shopping cart as a technology the mediates and organizes society, and how it affects and is affected by covid-19

May 29, 2020Group 5

by suwo19ab@student.cbs.dk

We chose the shopping cart as a technology that affects how we organize and mediate. We chose it because we wanted to genuinely examine an everyday technology that has been used in new and different ways during COVID-19.

Already before deciding, it was apparent to us that each of our experiences in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Denmark were very distinct from each other; this from an epidemiological, legislative, and emotional stance.

The experience of how to procure sustenance was however relevant to all of us, and we, therefore, decided to highlight this phenomenon.

 We have applied both ethnographic fieldwork, academic literature review, discourse analysis, and incorporated different artistic negotiations.

 We decided to examine it as a two-fold symbol of consumption, examining both the analog shopping cart and the digital shopping cart.

Both are central vehicles that support and organize shopping and allow customers to gather intended and unintended items. While the analog shopping cart, as we know it, was patented in the 1930s, we understand the optimal digital shopping experience as the one-click experience patented by Amazon, where the shopping cart is completely removed and the purchase is directly done to eliminate a process of consideration of the purchase.

In the context of Covid-19 the analog shopping cart and experience surrounding it has also been linked to microbiological danger, while the online shopping cart has been repositioned as a pure and ‘safe’ option to continue engaging with consumption practices.

Different shopping experiences

Today, I am not in Davos, but St. Gallen, where I study. I am in the supermarket, coop. I would like to talk to you about the shopping experience here in Switzerland and the lessons my colleagues observed in their respective countries.

First of all, I shop with a mask and gloves. This mask is a special one that brings in fresh air into my mask the same time. I live opposite the supermarket, so usually, I would shop daily my things and use only a basket.

Nowadays, I use a cart in order to hoard for a week. Like in all countries, I unluck the cart with a coin. Here at coop they give you even their own key chain for it. I have here the self-scanning device and a loyalty card. I first unlock the scanner with the loyalty card, finally can start choosing the items and eventually pay my self.

We have this system for nearly ten years, and my research has shown that Germany slowly started last year. I guess it is trust culture the supermarkets have. The lady told me that if they do not control sometimes, the thefts or wrong scannings goes up by 30%. In Germany, we observed much stronger, that people are using the cart as a safe harbour trying to find the distance.

In Italy, shopping carts are a must-have, but they also use small ones because of the narrow shops.

In Venice, there are very few shopping carts. The majority of people use their own shopping carts from home, which we have in this picture.

Else in Italy, they also have baskets and sometimes with wheels, which is also common in Denmark. In Denmark, Suzan hasn't experienced any special innovation in the past 30 years she has been alive.

Surveillance & Regulations

The shopping cart might be intended as the boat we navigate on in the ocean of products available to us. The companies are very aware of it and therefore are using different tools to track the consumers, profile them, to send extremely targeted advertisements that are aimed not only to fulfil consumers’ needs but also to create new ones, the customers might even be not conscious of.

This is true both for online companies and physical ones whom both profile their customers through loyalty programs and data analysis. This might generate a feeling of frustration and of being violated for the customers. Therefore, in order to be able to protect our fundamental rights of freedom, preserve our right of choice without being unconsciously pushed into certain buying behavior, and to prevent misuse of our personal data, fraud, and other illegal or unethical behavior.

The European Parliament made a huge step towards the freedom of the customers with the GDPR. This regulation aims to protect and secure data of the consumers within the EU. What we want to highlight however is that the GDPR gives us the option not to reveal our data, but it is up to us to take actions into protecting our privacy. This is the fundamental difference between regulation that is a rule made by a formal authority, and the resistance, that comes by taking active actions and requires a dose of animosity.

Resistance and "mis"-use

Another thing we found regarding misuse and resistance during this week is that the analog shopping cart has been and is being used as an extension of the body

Not just to assemble and transport groceries but also as a means of transport outside of the supermarket for furniture or other heavy things. During the ongoing pandemic it is also used a lot as a protective layer for shoppers to maintain social distance. -even used to play football in Germany “safely.”

Also shopping carts have been and are being used by some people for mobility or racing with them as a leisure or extreme sport activity as they are easily accessible. 

The main form of resistance we have found out about, is shopping cart abandonment - online and offline. Over 70% of online shopping carts are discarded without buying anything. It appears that online shopping and filling the basket can be a form of dreaming or playing or as we called it “digital window shopping.” 

 In general, what became very apparent to us this week is how these different technologies shape our behaviour of consumption. And this behaviour is increasingly being monitored to manufacture and steer consumption behaviour.

So, even if there is a 1-Click button or a scanning shopping cart, think twice about your consumption choice and if you want to use a certain technology. 

 If you think that this is not influencing you, ask yourself why you move slowly when pushing a shopping cart. Because when you go faster, it makes a lot of noise!

0 Comments8 Minutes

Dating apps in the Pandemic indeed pave the way into the real LOVE

May 29, 2020Group 4

by maju15ae@student.cbs.dk

INTRODUCTION

Let’s face it, dating apps can be a little weird. Two people behind a screen communicate in order to possibly meet one day. But what happens now, during the Pandemic, as it brings an incredible change in people’s both professional and personal life. How does the app organize us, when it is impossible to meet the person in the outside world? Did they really lose their purpose? The aim of the presentation today is to investigate the increasing use during the covid 19 era and how the user’s behavior changed. To gain insight into this research question we went into the field ourselves as well as developed a questionnaire regarding user motivation.  

SETTING THE BACKGROUND: THE INTENDED AND UNINTENDED USE

First, we decided to set the background and explore the general use of dating apps, regardless of the timing. We discussed that even though they were created mostly for finding a partner or enabling casual dating, some unusual unintended usage occured. For instance it is common to use Tinder as a mere self-confidence boosting tool, or as an easy access to business collaborations. Some people even use it solely for financial gains, such as free drinks. 

SETTING THE BACKGROUND: THE  RISK VS LOVE TRADE-OFF

Moreover, throughout the week we noticed how significant is the pay-off between risk and potential gains from using the app. On one hand, with the huge “supply” of singles the possibility of finding the love of your life is great. However, the risk of your most  intimate data being misused against your will is  quite frightening. 

SURVEY FINDINGS: ARTIFICIALITY AND NO COMMON GROUND

When it comes to the background findings from the survey we conducted, we definitely noticed that users feel uncomfortable with the artificiality of the relationships. Lack of real emotions, connection and engagement is often mentioned. Moreover, it seems clear that the indicated advantage of real life dating is that one usually meets the other person within certain context, whether it is the same work, hobby, etc.  Simply the common ground eases the first stages of the relationship. 

SURVEY FINDINGS: DIFFICULTY WITH ESTABLISHING TRUST 

Next, we discussed trust. From the visiting lecturer’s work on establishing trust in the online environment (Bialski, 2009) we learned that the trust occurs once the virtual community shares the same goal, hence we were interested to know how is this aspect actually organised among the dating society.  We were surprised to see that in fact the users very often indicate little or no  trust while using Tinder. Although, we hypothesised that this missing element may be due to the lack of  common goal for the community of online dating, which was actually proven by our survey insights. 

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH SWIPING AND UNMATCHING 

Another aspect that we discovered ourselves, as well as we found out from the questionnaire is that the gamified activities such as swiping or unmatching provide users with great empowerment. Even though some users felt uncomfortable - reporting experiences similar to  visiting  “huge supermarket with infinite variety of product” - a majority acknowledged that swiping gives them control and confidence.

THE USE: NOW AND THEN

In our survey, we also really wanted to answer the main research question that we posed. The results indeed proved our hypothesis, that the intentions to use Tinder actually changed due to the Pandemic. More users claimed to open the app only to seek social interaction, fight boredom or connect with other human beings. Whereas before the primary purpose was the intention to find love or sex.  We argued that people will in general tend to use the dating apps more, for they are more motivated or internally pressured to find partner which can support them during the difficult times. We indeed found out that 88% of people use Tinder more often than  in the usual setting. 

CRISIS MANAGEMENT TOOL 

We noticed that some people developed kind of uncertainty about the situation adding up with a need for control and anxiety. 45 % felt anxious about the corona, but  80 % felt that dating apps help them to reduce this tension.  But it helped even more. It clearly helped to reduce one important fact we are all fighting: loneliness. Being all by yourself at home can provoke a desperation for seeking love and even the willingness to put a lot of effort into this search for a partner. Some even seem to give up their rational, critical thinking. 

SELF PRESENTATION IN THE CORONA TIMES  

Concerning the self presentation, people started taking up elements of the crisis to present themselves in a humorous way. Showing some funny photos of corona beers or wrapping it into texts. 

Another outcome of the survey is that using the app now is connected to a completely different context of movement. Once the only way of getting to know the people was to show some guts and go outside to meet them in person. Now you can just sit comfortably on your sofa and let the virtual conversation take over. 

THE END TO THE STIGMATISATION  ERA

In times before Covid 19 people tried to avoid telling people the truth about how they met. They wouldn’t admit it and some even became very inventive with their stories. But now the people are kind of forced to use the app and to meet people there. So maybe it becomes the new standard after it is all over.  Some people tend to demonize the app and complain about the interchangeability and superficiality, which is paradox because even though they’re using it. So maybe it already became the new standard. 

WAY BACK INTO THE REAL LOVE 

Obviously, the current crisis has the power to change the entire way dating apps organize the formation of human relationships. The virus slowed things down. Given the necessity to stay inside and to relinquish any social activity, people can’t do the usual small talk, but might talk about more intimate topics, in order to really get to know each other. Additionally, sex and money lose their relevance in the dating context: If we are forced to meet virtually there’s no chance that discussions about who is paying for dinner and drinks arise; status symbols become less salient. We can’t have sex at the first date, but instead are encouraged to talk in the first place; to get back to the essential aspects that really determine love and affection without being influenced by bodily attraction. The virus seems to shift priorities and has the potential to change relationships even in the long term. In the future, it might be the standard to get to know each other virtually first before meeting in real life. This offers potential to diminish the negative stigmatization usually associated with dating apps: people might no more feel ashamed about having found their partner via Tinder, but might face a higher social acceptance of relationships like these. We want to take an optimistic - maybe naive - point of view by claiming that the crisis has the potential to change relationships for the good, to find our way back into real love. To reduce the current superficiality of dating apps to some extent and to focus on more natural elements of getting to know each other again. Are we in a situation where the concept of “slow love” might take over again?

“Romantic love can be triggered, whereas feelings of deep attachment take time to develop. We were built for slow love - and this pandemic is continuing to draw out this courtship process.” - New York Times

Created by: Marielle, Muriel & Martyna

0 Comments10 Minutes

Instagram as organizational tool – Conclusion

May 29, 2020Group 6

by emde19ac@student.cbs.dk

None of us really knew what to expect before entering this virtual Summer Academy. ⅓ sad not to be in Berlin, ⅓ confused and scared of the virtual awkwardness, ⅓ curious what this virtual context would unveil. We were lucky and directly got along the first day. All very different but all motivated to make this new type of group work a success we all enjoyed our topic and everyday revealed new aspects of the technology we didn’t think about in the past. Everyday was full of improvised “field work” and of constructive discussions, making us aware of so many “hidden” facets of this technology we use in our daily life. 

Over the past few days we have analysed the power of Instagram as an organizational tool in today’s society. This platform, which has developed to become one of the most used social apps worldwide and which has proven to be modular and to adapt in times of crisis. With an ever growing range of features, Instagram is today a platform on which practically everything is shared. And there are definitely many things to come in terms of development and influence of Instagram on our way to organize life and social relations.

It was extremely interesting to study the evolution of the social, the perception of the self and the “hidden” not so hidden influence of instagram on our taste, our shopping habits, our thoughts and feelings. Both giving the feeling of safety and belonging as well as evil and destructive Instagram has so many different faces, we unconsciously know but ignore to be part of a bigger thing. 

With love,

Aurora De Martin, Emaele de Quatrebarbes, Lara Schulte, Marco Ubalducci & Selma Vuckic

0 Comments2 Minutes

The rules for screen usage are yet to be written

May 28, 2020Group 3

by dragana.radovanovic@student.unisg.ch

Part one – Estranging ourselves from the screen. The screen has consciously occupied our group in the last few days, yet our handling of this object was mostly unconscious. Most of the time we spent in front of our screens, we followed the same pattern: we sat, turned on the camera, switched off the sound and listened to exactly one person talking. It was a way of dealing with the screen that had become a routine.  But what happens when you break out of this rhythm and become alienated from the medium? This was the experience we were all able to make, together on Wednesday evening, led by the performers Andrea Costanzo Martini and Silvia Gribaudi. At the beginning of the lesson we were picked up in our daily routine. As every day, the credo was ‘Sitting in a chair, heads in the middle of the picture, one person talking’. This initial scene developed; from scanning the space of the screen, into slowly getting up, into using the physical space as well as objects next to us and finally, just freaking out together. Many things were different from what we were used to doing with our screens, during a regular class. Participants were asked to just shout in and share strong feelings like: "I love you". Furthermore, the face was not at the centre of attention, but rather the body. We were encouraged to hold our armpits up to the camera. Things you don't share with people you've only known for three days and would normally not happen in a professional context. Reflecting on the afore described, the screen both figuratively and literally was a frame that allowed us to express ourselves artistically and to express ourselves in a way that we would probably have been inhibited in a screen-free context. Because this experience was so extremely different from what we knew, we felt pushed to the limit in some cases. We realized that the screen is a means to an end and that we actively determine how and for what we use it. It was only these deviations from normality that made us aware of how we usually utilize screens. 

Part two - Imitating offline communication? Massimo Warglien & Costanza Sartoris showed us a world that is very different from our Western ideas, regarding the use of nature to make products. In the manufacturing, resources are traditionally extracted from an ecological environment and converted into products that are then sold to consumers. In this process, nature has a passive position, while humans transform it according to their own preferences. 

The Khasi tribe in Meghalaya, India, has a completely different approach in dealing with nature, as documented by Warglien and Sartoris in ethnographic field research. Their observations are exemplified by the cultivation of the fig tree. The specific characteristics of this tree are being used to build living root bridges. This was only possible because the Khasi people saw the tree as an active member with whom to work with instead of using the material as a passive resource and transforming it according to human design. 

How can these findings be applied to screens? One could look more closely at how nature works and get inspired by those processes and what is around the observer. We think that screen usage should be monitored in order to be understood in a first step. We use the screens so often that we do not consciously perceive them. Only when something happens that seems "unnatural", we feel offended. In this sense, it is important to understand if on-screen life has to imitate off-screen life or rather construct its own rules. 

Part three - Our Progress and the way ahead. Today the last interviews and experiments were conducted. All team members have finished their research and noted down the main findings. Furthermore, first creative ideas for the presentation were collected with the help of the artist Simon Denny. In addition, first attempts to build a guiding thread were made. 

For tomorrow, it is planned to implement the ideas and to add a concise narrative to the presentation and to name interesting points that will inspire the audience to think further and reflect on the screen as an object that mediates our lives.

0 Comments5 Minutes

How does a human drones gaze look like?

May 28, 2020Group 2

by 856495@stud.unive.it

Following up on todays lecture and discussion on ‘the road not taken’ (Sartoris & Warglien), the groups are encouraged to ponder potentially alternative forms of organizing that arise from a different perspective on technology. 

How might we reframe our theme from a perspective based on the recognition of the agency of living entities as a component of alternative technological developments?

Regarding our topic the drone there are some perspectives which might be interesting to keep in mind. On the one side there is the individual being surveilled. Which takes the agency of the human away, because they can’t really decide if they want to or not, so the agency is getting taken. 

Another aspect is the perspective of nature, the relation between drone and nature. There is nearly no research on how drones flying around have an impact on nature in the city. But what is clear to say is that there are some areas where it is officially forbidden to fly with drones to take care of the wildlife. So it is clear that in this example the human is taking responsibility for nature because using a drone is the agency of natural entities

Today after the morning session of lecturers’ speaking I decided to go outside for taking some pictures about the gaze of a drone and some inspiration about the tasks that we had to face with. Unfortunately none of my attempts allows me to reach a very high place where I could take those pictures, so I had a very mad and crazy idea. I decided to switch my perspective, and instead of trying to record people with my phone, I filmed insects, ants in particular. So, as you can see in the pictures and videos that I added on this blog page, the ant becomes the person who walks around the city and I am the drone who follows him or her. 

As you can see, ants, like many humans, haven’t tried to get away from me, to hide from me, to get away from the drone who was fliying above them. They never stopped walking, and weren’t trying to resist against the gaze of the drone, the human drone. I found this “crazy” experiment very interesting because I think that you can use drones to study in detail animals or other natural creatures or event without disturbing them. So, in my opinion, it could exist a form of interaction between drones and nature.

0 Comments3 Minutes

Shopping carts alternative (mis)use

May 28, 2020Group 5

by suwo19ab@student.cbs.dk

(Un)intended Usage of the analogue shopping cart

Regarding the global pandemic and various government regulations, the shopping cart has undergone an interesting development. Rather than just functioning as a container to assemble items in, it is now used in many supermarkets in Germany to keep distance towards other people in the store. It somewhat functions as a protective layer, an extension of the human body to keep distance from potentially infectious people. This has gone as far as people using shopping carts outside stores to play football while maintaining social distance.

While this usage of the carts may seem rather ridiculous, it symbolizes very well how the use of shopping carts has been altered through the spread of the pandemic. As Donna Haraway has stated that we are cyborgs, using the shopping cart as part of the body is another example of how humans and technology are entangled. 

Of course, shopping carts have already been used in different ways than their traditional use in the supermarket. Some people use them to move stuff from one place to another, as shopping carts are free (or 1€) to take away and a good alternative to transport things without having access to a car. Thus, they have also been used for general mobility, moving around town as can be seen in the documentary “Carts of Darkness.”

Shopping Cart races seem to be or have been a very popular activity in general, some people even motorizing them. Here is one example, but I would encourage you to check out the videos on Youtube! 

The shopping cart and intent

While we in the analogue world may play around with the cart itself, the digital world offers a different experience of shopping. Firstly, things organized on a long and explicit list, rather than piled on top of eachother. Mediating and changing the basket content is a different experience. In many ways, it is not assumed that the customer changes their minds in the supermarket. If they do, they will have to retrack their steps in a physical space that is not intended for multidirectional movement; the store has a path of experience that is heavily planne; it starts at the entrance usually with vegetables, and ends at the register and the sweets. Having to go back and put an item back disturbs the ‘natural’ order and flow. Customers may leave an unwanted product at the register, but this demands a confrontation with staff. Often customers leave goods in random places in the store if their decide not to purchase them. While this is the path of least resistance for the customer, this costs supermarkets tremendous amounts of money every year, as frozen and cool goods may not be put back if the temperature has not been monitored and they don’t know how long goods have been left for. In online shopping it is however a complete different experience; while stores of course intend for people to use the basket to support purchase, baskets are often abandoned. Online shipping baskets can be used simply to negotiate desire, dream or to play; shopping as a leisure-activity requires no purchase, and the basket is used as a prop to organize the play, in this sense. 

Statistics and online checkout

As noticed, there are significant differences among the ways the physical shopping carts and the online ones are used, and misused. The habit of putting items into online shopping carts without finalizing the purchase is the typical behavior of the online customer. As a matter of fact, according to statistics, almost 70% of the time, the items are just abandoned in the shopping cart without converting the selection of an item in an actual purchase. This can be due to many reasons: the customer might need more time to decide, might not be truly willing to buy the good, might not be satisfied with the price or with the conditions of the delivery, might not have enough funds on his/her credit card, might be willing to search for alternatives on competitors’ platforms and so on. Of course, the companies want the conversion rate (i.e. the percentage of visitors of a website that complete a desired goal, called conversion, out of the total number of visitors) to be as high as possible. A high conversion rate is indicative of successful marketing and web design. Companies try to implement several strategies to lower the abandonment rate. The most common ones are about optimisation of the check-out process, ease of purchase, reduction of the time spent on the purchase and many others. One interesting example of strategies aimed to increase the conversion rate is the Amazon’s One Click button that allows the customer to completely skip the shopping cart step. 

0 Comments6 Minutes

Understanding the “new normal” – Don’t be evil!

May 28, 2020Group 1

by beatrice.schumacher@student.unisg.ch

How Zoom controls our lives and how we can gain back control

Since the coronavirus hit Europe, we have been taken on a journey to a “new normal”. A mode that is supposedly normal but consists of several abnormalities, if you put it in an extreme way. The space in which we normally act has been removed, and our everyday actions are now transferred into our personal spaces by the help of an important third party: Zoom. We now gather for a wide range of activities – both private and professional – without being physically present. Stripped of our normal routines, we unconsciously were thrown into a new normal, without reflecting and challenging this peculiar situation which has been forced upon us. May it be that we more often than not find ourselves walking around in pajama pants in class, being exposed on the Zoom stage when picking our noses or dancing with our professors on Zoom into the late evening.

Entering the stage of Zoom for the fourth, intensive day in a row, our group was somewhat drained but also excited to learn more about how we as individuals can start to understand the current situation, which is centered around an extensive use of man-made technology. How can we start to understand and reflect on a technology that is so close we might not even realize it? How do humans and technology interact to form the experience we currently make?

One interesting opportunity to estrange us from our current (over-)use of Zoom, and the unconscious rules and set of behavior we exhibit, was given to us last night. Dancing with our teachers, showing our armpits and private spaces – these experiences naturally caused some upstir in our class. While some participants experienced the event as deeply unpleasant or even manipulating, others embraced it with great joy. Internally in our small group we came to a common consensus that the event had been somewhat intimidating and uncomfortable to most of us. One important aspect of that was the recording of our dance in the end. Another one was the fact that this was somewhat mandatory, both for extroverts and introverts – just think about it, if we were in Berlin, we could have decided to join a party in the evening, thus having control over who sees us in what condition. Now we did not have this choice. Of course, one could exclude herself from the evening program – but then where is the sense of community on the other hand?

Intellectually today was a day of great learnings. The lecture and following discussions with Simon Denny were a real blast and boosted both our predisposition and creativity. As a real master of his language, he managed to get his message along, even when deprived of visual cues of communication. Interacting with the group through storytelling, video clips, and pictures, he managed to explain fairly complex themes, across many layers of society. With a pen in the hand and minds suddenly lightening up, our group enjoyed a great discussion.

Early into our discussion, one of our group members asked Simon: What is the material footprint related to Zoom? The following discussion would last, non-stop, the whole session. You see, there may be many “hidden” materialistic effects of the use of Zoom on for instance the environment, in particular concerning the energy infrastructure. The interesting thing about video conferencing is that it is not virtual, it is actual. And with actual implication on energy usage, that might be larger than you think!

Also, did you know that the internet has its origins in military tools for surveillance? Or that the servers through which it operates are subject to the law in the country in which it is stationed? In other words, by using Zoom we trust commercial systems with our everyday (private live). And enable them to keep the world under some sort of surveillance. In our group this discussion raised a particularly interesting discussion: Is the COVID-19 situation making us more aware of the dangers and possibility of such systems, thus being way a "wake-up" call with regards to the power of such technologies? Or is the COVID-19 situation the great moment of acceptance/naturalization, where we accept a new level of surveillance into our lives?

While we are no fortunetellers, there are some great opinion pieces out there to reflect on these questions. For example, check out this article by Israeli historian Yuval Harari: https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75. 

Getting closer to the end of what has been an exhausting yet very enlightening week, we are getting closer to a more wholistic perspective on Zoom videoconferencing. With inputs from a historian, a sociologist, our professors, our class (!), several artists and many more other scholars, we were able to gather new important insights into how to approach and understand Zoom. And finally, an approach to improve our current situation for good? While we don't have an agency to control Zoom, we may push back, we may uncover its vulnerabilities, and we may transfer our understanding of the tool and how it changes what is perceived as normal and abnormal, to you – our peers. So that we can all walk away after this week, with knowledge and tools ready to encounter an even more digitalized normality.

We are looking forward to uncovering the mix of technologies that this current crisis has brought into our lives with you tomorrow!

Xoxo,

The Zoom-bombers – Alma, Bea, Davide, Karolina & Oskar

Screenshots of abnormal things that have happened via Zoom – because life is better when you laugh ;)

0 Comments7 Minutes