In order to encourage dialogue around specific key issues we hold a regular colloquium at the Critical Media Lab. Colloquiums take place monthly during the semester, usually on Wednesday afternoons at the Critical Media Lab space. These gatherings are intended to take advantage of the varied and diverse backgrounds of all participants – our team members, invited guests and students. The sessions are meant to provide an inclusive and open forum for different perspectives on shared issues and to inspire, expand and challenge the ways in which we approach practice in technology, art, design, science and research. Discussions sometimes focus on written chapters and essays, and at other times on a creative project, intervention or exercise.
The colloquium is part of the curriculum offered within the MA Masterstudio Experimental Design and is explicitly open for students of the Make/Sense PhD and other study programs, as well as external guests and colleagues. Upcoming and past sessions are listed in the Agenda. Individual sessions are organized by CML members, some may ask for short readings or other thematic preparations. For details on the sessions please see the colloquium announcements on this website and be in touch with us to get access to the respective handouts with description, bios, links, reading lists and space for collective note-taking.
Rules of Engagement
  • The colloquium is a space of curiosity and generosity. Respectful disagreement should be ameliorative and generous towards all present.
  • The colloquium is geared towards discussing current issues and cutting-edge research, but we aim to be inclusive in our language and frames of reference. We invite all references and insights from all parts of lived experience: philosophy to pop culture, literature to online media, science to anecdote.
  • The colloquium is a learning space. Do not assume that other people know what you know or presume what they should know (i.e.: no name dropping). Allow all present to understand the contexts of your thinking, make arguments relatable and welcome questions.
Contact

Critical Media Lab
Freilager-Platz 1
4002 Basel
D 3.05 (high-rise building)
Address and directions

For questions about the colloquium, feel free to contact Johannes Bruder or Moritz Greiner-Petter.

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On the design of archival interfaces and questions of access and activation of digital collections. With digital humanities researcher and designer Lozana Rossenova.

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Wednesday, 3 May 2023

A closer look at the narratives, fantasies, and imaginaries built into large-scale computer networks. Colloquium session with scholar and poet Tung-Hui Hu and junior researcher Vanessa Graf.

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Colloquium session with Megan Eardley, PhD Candidate in Architectural History & Theory at Princeton University, on models and concepts of life in extreme environments.

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Colloquium session with Audio Leakage Community, a group of artists and scholars who share their various perspectives on the critical agency of leakages. Hosted by Budhaditya Chattopadhyay.

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Wednesday, 8 March 2023

With artist researchers Elly Clarke and Clareese Hill, hosted by Helen V. Pritchard. As part of the Trans★Feminist Digital Depletion Strike!

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Instituting Dissent

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Anti-racist practices and activism in the academy, and institutional resistances to the unsettling of its scripts and algorithms. With guest Nelly Y. Pinkrah.

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