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“Hey Siri, are you sharing my private data”: A commentary on the impact virtual personal assistants have on surveillance capitalism and user information consumption

“Hey Siri, are you sharing my private data”: A commentary on the impact virtual personal assistants have on surveillance capitalism and user information consumption

For a digitally immersed society driven by technological developments and innovations, personal voice-controlled virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri have become a crucial component to task completion, user interaction, and information consumption. Virtual personal...
Can you change the world with a homemade DeepFake?

Can you change the world with a homemade DeepFake?

Kenza Sabri (kenzasabri5@gmail.com)  Zuzanna Kędzia (zuzanna.k0987@gmail.com) Daria Kochetkova (daria.kochetkova.08@gmail.com) “At the most basic level, deepfakes are lies disguised to look like truth. If we take them as truth or evidence, we can easily make false conclusions with potentially disastrous...
From art to ethical design; Studio Roosegaarde’s quest for a sustainable and aesthetic future

From art to ethical design; Studio Roosegaarde’s quest for a sustainable and aesthetic future

The clock is ticking: sea levels and temperatures are rising, plastic is building up, and animals face extinction. What if art can be the activator for change?
It’s a Small World – Oculus’ Quest 2 Redefine Distance

It’s a Small World – Oculus’ Quest 2 Redefine Distance

Oculus Quest 2, Facebook’s latest wireless Virtual Reality (VR) headset, was released in September 2020. Similar to its predecessor Oculus Quest, the gadget has been largely used for gaming, however this is not where the possibilities end. According to...
Designing identities with Memojis – Apple’s animated avatars

Designing identities with Memojis – Apple’s animated avatars

Apple's new feature - Memoji - allows its users to design animated versions of their digital characters, which can be later shared with other iOS device owners. What does an introduction of this affordance entail for human practices of...
Robots in the newsroom: how robots change journalism

Robots in the newsroom: how robots change journalism

With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, robots are entering the world of journalism. They do not longer function only as an aid for journalists but are also able to write news articles individually. What kind of...
A Rhetoric of WeWalk-ing. Smart Canes and “feeling of freedom” in the urban environment

A Rhetoric of WeWalk-ing. Smart Canes and “feeling of freedom” in the urban environment

The new uses of smart technology are being constantly introduced, and unlike a cat selfie device or a cute planter that aim to add some fun to our humdrum existence, WeWALK smart cane attempt to make a difference. This...
VR as a Tool to Prevent Sexual Offenses

VR as a Tool to Prevent Sexual Offenses

According to an article by Refinery29, 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men report having experienced some form of sexual assault or harassment in their lifetimes (Ohikuare). With 2017 being the year of trailblazing campaigns such as...
Are we compromising our privacy and safety for comfort and ease?

Are we compromising our privacy and safety for comfort and ease?

    We are becoming more and more used to the idea of new technology being embedded, into our everyday lives and activities. Marshall McLuhan believes that we treat “technologies as extended bodily organs.” (Durham Peters) We are continuously experimenting...
Hello, we’re from the internet: “Hacking” museum spaces using AR

Hello, we’re from the internet: “Hacking” museum spaces using AR

  A description of Augmented Reality as we know it today first appeared in 1901, when L. Frank Baum’s sci-fi novel called “The Master Key” was published. In this book, Baum describes the workings of a so-called ‘Character Marker.’...
Autonomous Cars Are The Future – But For Whom Are They The Future For?

Autonomous Cars Are The Future – But For Whom Are They The Future For?

  Autonomous cars have been hailed as the next leap for mankind in automotive transportation and infrastructure, offering not only advancements in private and public transport, but addressing difficulties in health infrastructure, emissions, road collisions, and government overheads on...
I’m a good person…seriously…just check my Kinditude!

I’m a good person…seriously…just check my Kinditude!

My phone noisily vibrates on the empty train seat beside me, snapping me out of my daydream. A notification on my locked screen says “Remind to be kind!”. The grammar needs work, but the message is clear: I need...
The Zero UI Music Player

The Zero UI Music Player

One of the most iconic computers in cinema is certainly HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s epos 2001: A Space Odyssey. With all inner workings hidden beneath a red light in a camera lens, the mischievous A.I. created an eerie atmosphere...
Power according to Foucault

Power according to Foucault

Introduction This article gives a short overview about several concepts related to ‘power’ from 20th century French social theorist Michel Foucault. He was highly influenced by Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser. Foucault is both associated as a structuralist and...
ecoarttech: techno-art connecting people with nature

ecoarttech: techno-art connecting people with nature

The New Media art partnership between Cary Peppermint and Leila Christine Nadir entitled ecoarttech aims to repurpose the use of common technologies (e.g. smartphones) with the intent of bringing global communities closer together, as well as local communities closer to,...
ArtPassport: How Virtual Reality Technology is Shaping Our Cultural Experiences

ArtPassport: How Virtual Reality Technology is Shaping Our Cultural Experiences

  One of the most influential figures of our time, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” On the contrary, writer Evgeny Morozov believes that “Celebrating innovation for its own sake is...
The clever dispenser that nobody asked for

The clever dispenser that nobody asked for

    A young Silicon Valley start-up just launched a product of arguable novelty. This product is a dispenser customized with some edgy additional features such as the Wi-Fi, several cameras and an app. The start-up, named Bodega, created...
Facial ID scanning: An advertisers’ dream, or a consumers’ nightmare?

Facial ID scanning: An advertisers’ dream, or a consumers’ nightmare?

A couple of weeks ago, a traveler noticed a camera in one of the digital advertising screens at a train station in the Netherlands. A photo of this ‘hidden’ camera was then posted on Twitter, questioning the purpose of these...
Silicone Robotic Mask: Making Computed Emotions Physical

Silicone Robotic Mask: Making Computed Emotions Physical

An important aid in computing our emotions since the digital revolution is the use of emoticons. But our emotions could be captured and communicated better, by moving away from mimicking facial expressions to having roots in real physical functions....
Goalpost in the Ozone: The Deceptively Good Intentions of #Climate

Goalpost in the Ozone: The Deceptively Good Intentions of #Climate

As far as scientific consensus goes, it’s tempting to label the ‘debate’ around climate change as being over. However, to do so invites complacency, a willingness to delegate responsibility to a far-off unknown authority. News organisations, politicians and activists...
Terahertz Femtophotography: Bringing you the ancient world’s latest news

Terahertz Femtophotography: Bringing you the ancient world’s latest news

Earlier this week, reports started trickling through the web about a camera developed by the Camera Culture Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sure, a camera coming out of a MIT lab sounds interesting, but how can it...
When cats are also bots.

When cats are also bots.

Meet Mica. Cat content works. It’s one of the unofficial laws under which the internet operates. Cat content is funny and lifts you up. And now cat content informs you. How? Let me tell you about “Mica the Hipster...
Pokémon Go: A Blueprint for Augmented Reality?

Pokémon Go: A Blueprint for Augmented Reality?

July 2016, a cultural zeitgeist dating back to the 90s was unleashed upon the world with renewed and unprecedented vigour. Pokémon Go fever swept the world – at its peak in mid-July, it was estimated that over 45 million (Griffiths)...

Now on Sale: Sleep and Relaxation

 Sleep is an uncompromising interruption of the theft of time from us by capitalism (Crary, 10). We seem to be living in a time that is known for sleep deprivation, and many other activities that are being linked to...