SODAS DATA DISCUSSION

Akrylfarver i vand - photo: colourbox
The Centre for Social Data Science (SODAS), is pleased to announce a new series of seminars we call SODAS Data Discussions.

 

SODAS aspirers to be a resource for all students and researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences. We therefor invite researchers across the faculty to present ongoing research projects, project applications or just a loose idea that relates to the subject of social data science.

 

Every month this fall semester, two researchers will present their work. The rules are simple: short research presentations of ten minutes are followed by twenty minutes of debate. No papers will be circulated beforehand, and the presentations cannot be longer than five slides.

Laboratory story
Biometrics, body-cartographers and infrastructures of mobility

Kristina Grünenberg will present at our third SODAS Data Discussion the 9th of november. Kristina is Associate Professor at the Department of Antopology, Univerity of Copenhagen.

Abstract

This presentation focuses on the work that takes place in a biometric laboratory where different kinds of biometric technologies, based on the digitalization of body parts, such as finger veins and facial features, as well as body sounds and rhythms from e.g. voices and heartbeats, constitute the object of research and development. The presentation focuses on biometric researchers’ continuous endeavours to identify new unique body properties and ‘enroll’ them as biometric modalities. I argue that researchers see themselves as a form of ‘body cartographers’ mapping new body landscapes, exploring their uniqueness and the ways in which can they relate particular bodies to identities. What is important for the researchers is the constant creative tinkering with (new) body-parts and their characteristics, with algorithmic precision, relations to soft- and hardware programs, sensors, and, at times, user bodies. In the context of this work, the lab is configured as a playground and a site for creative exploration, but also as part of a particular type of security infrastructure.

 

SODAS Data Discussion will take place in Building 35, Floor 3, Room 20 (35.3.20) of the CSS Campus, University of Copenhagen, from 11.00 - 12.00 the 9th of November.

  

If you are interested in presenting your work at a SODAS Data Discussion or want to know more, please write Agnete Vienberg Hansen at avh@econ.ku.dk.