The Social Lives of Data: Attention, Agency, Exploitation

Abstract

In the information-saturated landscape of the digital transition, data is an increasingly valuable and contested resource. This panel explores how data can be staged, scraped, modeled, looted, weaponized, faked, resisted, and mindfully attended. The papers presented investigate themes including: hacking and the role of affect in political strategy; the relationship between technology, brands, and the fragmentation of attention; a dramaturgical analysis of voice assistants; data collection by bots for nefarious purposes as well as legitimate knowledge production; and a framework for mindful consumption and (re)creation of information. Taken together, these reflections illuminate how data-driven technologies shape our experiences at multiple levels, from structures of democracy to our ability to focus our attention.

Chair

• Alexa Hagerty, Stanford (alum)

Discussant

• Luis Felipe Rosado Murillo, CNAM/IFRIS

Individual Presentations

• Attention Shortcut: Mechanisms for Adapting to Prosumption and Forced Compliance - Sally Applin, Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) Yale University/HRAF Advanced Research Centres (EU), Canterbury

• Staging Natural Conversation: A Dramaturgical Analysis of Voice Assistants - Dipanjan Saha, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore; Bidisha Chaudhuri, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore

• Self-Service Data on Open Markets? - Jérémie Garrigues, Université de Lausanne

Session Organizer

• Alexa Hagerty, Stanford (alum)