roger malina panel presentation at isea 2012 on Hard Humanities in the Anthropocene

1. The Hard Humanities And Socially
Robust Science in the Anthropocene
Roger F Malina
UT Dallas

2. The Anthropocene
• “informal” geologic chronological term that
serves to mark the evidence and extent of
human activities that have had a
significant global impact on the Earth's
ecosystems.
•
• With an impact sufficiently extensive as to be
detectable in the geological record.

3. Hard Humanities
• Transforming human societies so that they are
sustainable requires massive “cultural
innovation”
• The hard humanities are the approaches
needed to bring about systemic cultural
innovation.
• This is the first time that we are faced with
designing our culture rather than evolving it.

4. Towards « socially robust science « ?
• Helga Nowotny,
President European • .
Research Council:
• « ..Society is moving into
a position where it is
increasingly able to
communicate its wishes,
desires and fears to
Science »
• Harold Vasselin artist in
residence at the Provence
Climate Change Observatory

5. Mechanisms for Socially Robust
Science
• Open Observatory
Manifesto
•
• The RIGHT to the data
taken about you.
•
• The DUTY to
contribute open data
about your context
and environment

6. • Open Observatories:
.
• Coupling Common Sense to Common Science
• Micro-Science
o Micro Science is to the Italian Science Foundation
What Micro Credit is to the World Bank
• Making science intimate
o Owning data about your own environment
o Science creating communities own their
knowledge
o
o
• Science- Art Projects and Art-Science Projects
• Art driven use of scientific methods and
instruments
• Science driven development of cultural artifacts

7. We are becoming a data taking culture
Calm Technologies/Distributed
Sensing/Locative Media
• Weiner 1991 Xerox Parc
• Eg Eric Paulos, Intel
• www.urban-atmospheres.net/
CitizenScience
• active participation in basic
scientific data gathering
• richer, finer-grain data sets for
modeling
• mobile phone for grassroots
participation in
government and policy
making
• Trash Truck project

8. Citizen’s Science
• Environment 2.0
• FutureEverything Festival
• Drew Hemment, UK
•
• Bubbles: Meteorological
Office project with
artists and children
• Bio-Tagging: Urban
Ecology and Artists

9. People’s Science
• Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti:
Indian People’s Science
Networks
• Brazil Digital Culture projects
• Sergipe « Human Project »
o Humbi Umbi in Brazil
• Srishti School, Bangalore
• Ubiquitous micro science
producing communities
• Open Hardware
• Hacker Culture, Bricolabs
•
• OPEN OBSERVATORIES

10. Participatory Mapping
• Congo Participatory
• Click to edit Mapping Project
Master text • Buckminster Fuller
styles Challenge award
Second level finalist 2011
Third level • Empowers local forest
Fourth level communities to use
Fifth level
cutting edge
technologies to map
their lands and
resources
• Use this evidence as
advocacy and

11. Boulder USA, Community Gardens
Community Mapping

12. GRASSROOTS
MAPPING
• http://grassrootsmapping.org
•
• Click to edit Master
• MIT MEDIA LAB
text styles
• Design Ecology Group Second level
• Center for Future Civic Media Third level
Fourth level
• Fifth level
• Jeff Warren • Click to edit Master
• text styles
• Example of COMMUNITY Second level
REMOTE SENSING Third level
Fourth level
Fifth level
12

13. Leonardo Lovely Weather Residencies
SOFTDAY: Marbh Chrios
Musical Performances from Ocean Dead Zones

15. DATA
• Data is Power
• Become a data taking culture
• “Occupy” Big Data
• Citizen Science
• Arts and Humanities on the front lines of
cultural innovation
• The Hard Humanities
• Socially Robust Science