Artistic Research
Framing and Methods
In the artistic research part of the project, we are exploring how, in an era of being heard but not always listened to, we can speak up; what spaces for public decision-making can and should accompany the development of emerging technologies; and how we can shape the experience of technologies in everyday life.
a public infrastructure
a public infrastructure is a project by Angela YT Chan and Alexandra (Sasha) Anikina that asks: To what extent are technological infrastructures in the hands of the public?
Developed as part of SOUNDSCALE in collaboration with the Critical Infrastructures and Image Politics (CIIP) group and hosted at John Hansard Gallery, it combines:
- A sculptural installation for gathering
- A playful public workshop series
- A tech justice assembly
The sculptural meeting space and programme explore technology, social, racial, gender, and climate justices. Through communal, creative, and investigative activities, participants were invited to document and trace technologies, sound, and space, and to explore the infrastructures around them in Southampton. The installation provided a space for gathering, co-learning, co-making, and imagining alternative infrastructures, particularly what might constitute a public one.
What are our rights to public spaces?
What are the technologies that connect us to each other and to these spaces?
What are our rights to these technologies?
Who hears when we speak out in public spaces?
Who takes care when listening?
Artistic Investigations
Alongside a public infrastructure, Angela YT Chan and Alexandra (Sasha) Anikina are developing individual artistic investigations into the infrastructures and narratives surrounding emerging technologies.
Angela YT Chan
Exploring the “ecology of DAS” by mapping the timelines and geographies of dark fibre climate narratives.
Alexandra (Sasha) Anikina
Weaving Dark Fibre, using decolonial science fiction and infrastructural justice as an emerging technology framework.
Sound, Sensors and Surveillance
Sound, Sensors and Surveillance is a browser-based narrative game developed in Bitsy by Louis Cook and Angela YT Chan. It introduces Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) through speculative technological landscapes and explores how its deployment may affect different communities. The game asks who shapes technological futures, who benefits from them, and who may be harmed or excluded.
