The so called quantified self movement brings tools to measure our everyday activities and physical health. Some claim that big data and machine learning algorithms can liberate people from authority control, emphasizing the right to access one's own "life data". Others claim the opposite: the ideologies behind this movement are all about surveillance and big brother control from large tech companies and government authorities. To this Tech Breakfast we will read articles that discuss aspects of the quantified self movement. The following text will be discussed:
Ajana, B. (2017). Digital health and the biopolitics of the Quantified Self. Digital Health (3)
Fawcett, T. (2015) Mining the Quantified Self: Personal Knowledge Discovery as a Challenge for Data Science. Big Data 3(4).
Lupton, D. (2016). The diverse domains of quantified selves: self-tracking modes and dataveillance. Economy and Society, 45(1).
Every second Thursday morning we will ponder these questions and digest digital bytes for breakfast, with sandwiches and coffee served as a side dish. The simple idea behind Humlab's Tech Breakfast initiative is to create a collaborative space for practical, critical, and theoretical explorations of digital methods and digital technologies. Half of the breakfasts are pre-planned thematically, and half will allow scholars to gain hands-on support from the technical staff at Humlab.
Welcome to join us for breakfast!