Module overview
Data is material. It is produced by people, it is made possible by resource extraction, it needs power to survive, it inhabits and resculpts the landscape. The use of data, then, contributes to climate catastrophe, but that role can be hard to see, hidden as it often is by a veneer of utopian hype that surrounds the information technology sector.
Drawing on scholarship from digital media studies, environmental history, computer science, science and technology studies, climate science, and archival science, this module examines the past, present, and future intersections of data and the natural environment. It lifts the lid on the countercultural origins of techno-utopianism. It examines the environmental degradation and injustices that techno-utopianism has and continues to hide (e.g. the instrumentalisation of personal climate responsibility). And it opens a pathway for building an intersectional and justice-oriented data environmentalism.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of reflexive data practice.
- You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the role of data in perpetuating injustice.
- You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of justice-led practices and how to apply those to the production and use of data.
- You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of effective group work.
- You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the intersections between data production and it computational uses.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- You will be able to apply to your knowledge of how knowledge production, datafication, and algorithmic systems intersect to your wider programme of study.
- You will be able to apply to your knowledge of justice-led approaches to data to your wider programme of study.
- You will be able to apply to your reflexive data practice to your wider programme of study.
- You will be able to apply to your knowledge of what makes for good group work to your wider programme of study.
- You will be able to apply to your knowledge of the role of data in perpetuating injustice to your wider programme of study.
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- You will be able to act as an informed citizen in your use of data.
- You will be able to act as an informed citizen in your production and reuse of data.
- You will be able to act reflexively in your response to injustices amplified by the use of data.
- You will be able to act effectively in situations that require group work.
- You will be able to act in justice-led ways to the production, use, and reuse of data in wider society.
Syllabus
Indicative topics include:
- - The Digital is Material: fourteen cables at Porthcurno Beach
- - Green Computing: the state of play
- - The Californian Ideology: Silicon Valley's settler-colonial utopian frontiersmen
- - Anatomy of an Amazon Echo: extraction, waste, energy
- - The Sacking of Timnit Gebru: Google, ethics, and trust
- - Bitcoin & Non-Fungible Tokens: energy (dis)proportionality
- - Pollution is Colonialism: intersectional environmental justice
- - Bitstreams in the Archive: climate archivism
- - ExxonMobil's climate change communications: data analysis for climate justice
- - The Cloud is a Factory: ghost work and acid clouds
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods:
- Seminars divided into topic discussion and supervision of group practical work.
- Topic mini-lectures will be pre-recorded for use during independent study time.
Learning activities include:
- In-depth analysis of critical texts
- Preparatory reading, practical experimentation, and individual study
- Individual participation in seminars and group work
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 36 |
| Independent Study | 114 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Internet Resources
Digital Technology and the Planet: Harnessing Computing to Achieve Net Zero.
Journal Articles
Sean Cubitt, Robert Hassan, and Ingrid Volkmer (2011). Does Cloud Computing Have a Silver Lining?. Media, Culture & Society, 33(1).
Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron (1996). The Californian Ideology. Science as Culture, 6(1).
Keith Pendergrass et al. (2019). Toward Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation. The American Archivist.
Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes (2021). Rhetoric and Frame Analysis of ExxonMobil’s Climate Change Communications. One Earth, 4(5).
Emily M Bender et al. (2021). On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?.
Textbooks
Max Liboiron (2021). Pollution Is Colonialism.
Kate Crawford (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence.
Kyle Devine (2019). Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music.
Assessment
Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Project proposal
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback: Feedback is ongoing and forms part of the teaching as a whole. The students will receive written and verbal feedback on all of their assignments.
- Final Assessment: No
- Group Work: Yes
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Portfolio | 50% |
| Public outcome | 50% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Portfolio | 50% |
| Public outcome | 50% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Public outcome | 50% |
| Portfolio | 50% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External