{"id":15368,"date":"2017-06-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/digital-empathy-steamy-tech\/"},"modified":"2020-11-24T23:20:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T22:20:30","slug":"digital-empathy-steamy-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/digital-empathy-steamy-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Empathy, STEAMy tech & ?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"project":[354],"project_type":[],"class_list":["post-15368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","project-studio-visits"],"acf":{"bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","custom_color_css_variable":"","content_type":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"How to approach the present of technophile start up culture from the perspective of having been an early netizen of the odd corners of the Internet? How to prepare for the set up of future social robots from the perspective of a designer? And how to deal with the collapsing gap between a scifi future and the present \u2013 a gap simultaneously widening for those left out of this future? Thoughts on these questions by New York based artist and designer Fei Liu, who approaches these topics with the digital empathy of a laughing crying emoji. <\/strong>\r\n\r\nJudith Engel:<\/strong> Who are you?\r\n\r\nFei Liu:<\/strong> I\u2019d say I am 50% user-experience designer and 50% practicing artist. A data broker would say I\u2019m a married millennial female, with mid-to-average combined student debt from an undergraduate as well as a master\u2019s degree, with no health insurance, car, or house.\r\n\r\nJE:<\/strong> What is your attitude as a designer and artist towards the technophile start-up culture of Silicon Valley you grew up with? How do you deal with the 20 year-long heritage of being one of the users who experienced a different net \u2013 a space associated with safety, freedom and kind of small community?\r\n\r\nFL:<\/strong> I was born in Northern China and grew up in Silicon Valley \u2013 spending my youth living in Cupertino, home of Apple\u2019s HQ. The web still felt very safe and small when I started exploring the odd corners of the internet<\/a>. I wasn\u2019t actually very aware of Apple or IBM at the time even though their headquarters were literally down the street from my old house:"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_video","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"video_embed":"https:\/\/schloss-post.com\/content\/uploads\/cupertino_drive_exp.mp4?_=1","video":{"video_mp4":null,"video_webm":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"
\u00bbThe first half of my life was affected by Californian utopianism, and the latter by MIT\u2019s doctrine of \u203adeploy or die.\u2039\u00ab<\/span><\/strong><\/blockquote>\r\nSilicon Valley is where a lot of early computation\u2019s idealism originated from, and where antithetical to that, a lot of displacement and uprooting of neighborhoods is also happening. I went to college at UCLA\u2019s Design | Media Arts program, where many influential creators of open-source software mold the curriculum. I moved back to China, a country now rising in the technological ranks, for two years as an adult. I got my MFA at Parsons in New York, then worked in New York-based startups in a region of Manhattan now called \u00bbSilicon Alley.\u00ab The first half of my life was affected by Californian utopianism, and the latter by MIT\u2019s doctrine of \u00bbdeploy or die.\u00ab\r\n\r\nThe kind of solutionism heralded by some strains of technological innovation and its out-of-touch-ness with society can be best represented by this emoij ?\u2013to laugh and cry at the same time. I made a game and interactive installation in 2014 which I think allowed people to do that. The Qualified Life<\/em> turns the experience of interviewing for a startup company into a fully automated and gamified system that entrusts algorithms to determine the qualifications of employment. What\u2019s the relationship between ergonomics and corporate wellness? How do we turn leveraging and monetizing the health of a workforce into something fun?"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_video","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"video_embed":"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/99207668","video":{"video_mp4":null,"video_webm":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"But in general, I am the thing that I poke fun of. I also measure myself and my social existence in metrics: social capital, emotional capital, financial capital. Like, if a tree falls in the forest and doesn\u2019t tweet about it, how will anyone know? ?\r\n
\u00bbWe live in the age of ambivalentopia: the age of frictionless, invisible tech that simultaneously liberates and oppresses.\u00ab<\/span><\/strong><\/blockquote>\r\nJE:<\/strong> Your current project \u00bbNew Mercy Park\u00ab is set in a science fiction environment. What is the project about and what role does future orientated, fictional narration play concerning your approach?\r\n\r\nFL:<\/strong> I think with a project that tries to address so many facets of technological mediation \u2013 disruptive innovation, social robotics, design ethics and code literacy \u2013 that only a transmedia storytelling approach can cover everything I want to discuss.\r\nThree takeaways I want to stress: first, that while the gap between a scifi future and the present is collapsing, it is widening for those left out of this future. It\u2019s happening now, and we need design guides to navigate it. Second, that we should all prepare for incoming robot companions \u2013 who will be joining us in our workplaces, our homes, and even in our beds \u2013 by reverse engineering them in order to learn how they work. Third, we should do this so as to preserve our own humanity. It calls into question, complications of design ethics and human morality: how do we build ethical and moral robots<\/a> when we struggle to define those values for ourselves?"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":6,"img_gallery":false,"img":[25187],"img_gallery_format":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"Coding tutorial as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story\r\n<\/cite><\/strong>\r\n\r\nDouglas Rushkoff\u2019s book Program or be Programmed<\/em> is a warning and an encouragement. We fear the implications of a near future dominated by code literacy: being manipulated by algorithms and pushed out of work by robots. In New Mercy Park, this world becomes an environment for learning. The narrative coding tutorial puts the reader in the shoes of a male-sex-robot beta-tester who, through facing some of these dilemmas, learns to deconstruct their robot and recreates him from scratch. The reader learns about fundamental coding principles, the usage of basic sensors and Arduinos.\r\n\r\nSTEAMy tech: Build the love you deserve, today<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn the world of education and technology, there is a movement towards STEAM, which represents Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math, versus a historical focus on just STEM without the A. What I mean when I say STEAMy is that I want to introduce sensuality, emotionality, and provocation into tech education. During my workshop at Solitude about DIY sex robots<\/a>, I lit a stick of Palo Santo. The sweet coconut smell had always reminded me of proximity and intimacy. As smoke from the wood rose into the air, a participant started to recount an ex-boyfriend \u2013 maybe he imbued his robot with some aspect of the former flame."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":6,"img_gallery":false,"img":[25189],"img_gallery_format":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":6,"img_gallery":false,"img":[25191],"img_gallery_format":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"JE:<\/strong> When it comes to the topic of doing research to be as well-prepared as possible for future inventions as you mentioned before, your project Humans of Simulated New York<\/em>comes to my mind. Can simulations serve as models for preparation rather than models for an unpredictable future?\r\n\r\nFL:<\/strong> Humans of Simulated New York<\/em><\/a> is a computer simulation project I worked on with my collaborator Francis Tseng to create an algorithmic modeling of the relationships between different data points in New York citizens\u2019 census data. Simulations are very interesting tools to learn about systems, specifically at wicked problems \u2013 issues like global food crises, homelessness, or addiction that are nearly impossible to solve due to their incomplete and contradictory definitions, and complexity and scale. Through this exercise we were able to visualize on a 3D plane, the connections between individuals\u2019 socioeconomic status, and the city\u2019s economy at large. Additionally, we also let people tweak the knobs of the simulation by presenting them with world building options that they could change themselves: what would New York look like if there was only corn left, full robot automation, and a strong zombie virus that infects the population?"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_video","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"video_embed":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/OCX0-DV0Etk","video":{"video_mp4":null,"video_webm":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"JE:<\/strong> On your website you describe yourself as \u00bba designer, artist, writer and DJ exploring digital empathy, and the narrative potential of interfaces\u00ab. Do you consider narrating a potentially critical tool, although storytelling has been increasingly instrumentalized\/misused for marketing purposes during the last years?\r\n
\u00bbJust because stories distort doesn\u2019t mean they distort to the same degree, or are equally unreliable. Earth is flat, or earth is round. You can tell convincing stories about both, and one will take you further away from the truth.\u00ab<\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u2013 Ken Liu<\/span><\/strong><\/blockquote>\r\nFL: <\/strong>As a designer of consumer products, I\u2019m definitely guilty of having used storytelling to sell something. But, what is co-opted and instrumentalized by marketing and state propaganda departments alike is the ability for stories for bring people together around a common idea.\r\nI run a radio show and podcast<\/a>, and one of our episodes was about the importance of oral histories in the preservation of generations of knowledge in the historic neighborhood of New York\u2019s Chinatown \u2013 a former ghetto that had been created out of exclusionary laws against Chinese immigrants. Now there are efforts internally within the community to encourage an organic flourishing of creative efforts, and to combat gentrification from the outside. Storytelling, used here, is a way to understand the community and to bridge gaps."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_video","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"video_embed":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/trytobegood\/oral-histories-local-activism-in-chinatown-future-cities","video":{"video_mp4":null,"video_webm":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"Scifi writer and former tax lawyer Ken Liu says in a Quill or Be Quilled<\/em> episode that, \u00bbjust because stories distort doesn\u2019t mean they distort to the same degree, or are equally unreliable. Earth is flat, or earth is round. You can tell convincing stories about both, and one will take you further away from the truth.\u00ab The fake stories and unreliable narrators are useful too. They give you a frame from which to investigate the other side: the story they\u2019re not telling you. All this being said, we need more than stories to understand the world.\r\n\r\nJE:<\/strong> What is the meaning of digital empathy, has it something to do with you mentioning that we are way too rational when it comes to technology?\r\n\r\nFL:<\/strong> Since the time of writing, the word \u00bbempathy\u00ab has really come to reach critical mass and peak saturation \u2013 another thing to join the ranks of media and marketing co-option. I think what I meant by \u00bbdigital empathy\u00ab is that digital artwork can be relational. It has great potential to connect people and open up avenues for discussion. It\u2019s a little bit different to being irrational, which I think is important as a counterweight to today\u2019s highly managed and self-cybernetic systems. Rationalism, like science and technology has colonizing, hegemonic, and disruptive affects that are maybe not immediately visible or as deadly as gunpowder and cannons but can still alter history.\r\n\r\nJE:<\/strong> In which way is your artistic practice different from your design practice? What are advantages and disadvantages of these disciplines?\r\n\r\nFL:<\/strong> For me, what I make is art because it doesn\u2019t serve an immediate practical purpose, even though it is functional. It is design because I create an experience trying to anticipate and accommodate for how people will react to it. I don\u2019t think of my audience as an audience \u2013 they\u2019re users of my wares: soft, hard, performative, social, networked. They\u2019re actively constructing the experience with, and sometimes for, me.\r\n
\u00bbI think what I meant by \u203adigital empathy\u2039 is that digital artwork can be relational.\u00ab<\/strong><\/span><\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIn the context of post-election America, it\u2019s important to ask what sort of contribution to society we can make with our creative practices. I think a relational approach to technology can become a vehicle for dialogue and critique that can span across disciplines, generations, race and class lines. Many of us in the creative fields might have this feeling. What can we do with it?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/article>"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project?post=15368"},{"taxonomy":"project_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_type?post=15368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}