Workshop with lecture by Dr. Sebastian Scholz (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam): “Sensor-Media-Environments and/ as Technoecologies of Perception”.

Internal event by the research group SENSING. The Knowledge of Sensitive Media.

Sensors give things objects and machines the ability to “feel” – from smartphones and smart homes to wearables and implanted sensors, human and animal bodies and plant and elementary environments are thereby interconnected, scanned, recorded and measured. The SENSING research group at the Brandenburg Centre for Media Studies (ZeM) is concerned with how the usage of networked sensor technologies affects and alters human perception, feeling, knowledge and action.

SENSING. The Knowledge of Sensitive Media

Research group funded by the Volkswagen Foundation
Term: 4 years
Begin: 1 October 2018
7 PhD positions and 1 post-doc position

The research group SENSING. The Knowledge of Sensitive Media, jointly initiated by several ZeM members and funded by the Volkswagen Foundation was based at the ZeM since October 2018. Seven PhD students and one post-doctoral researcher collaborated on a broad range of topics regarding computer-networked sensor technology (list of project participants). The research group was supervised by seven professors from three universities associated with the ZeM (University of Potsdam, Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam). Prof. Dr. Marie-Luise Angerer (University of Potsdam) was the spokesperson of the research college.

From the beginning, the research group showed a high level of activity (conference participations, conducting workshops, lecture and discussion events, teaching events, publications in print, online and audio). In January 2019, a documentary film on Donna Haraway’s thinking was screened at the Film Museum; Donna Haraway was then telecast for a live conversation in the theater. In February 2019, the SENSING team hosted a workshop on “The Knowledge of Sensitive Media” as part of the transmediale. In June 2019, the Research College hosted the two-day symposium “SENSING. Fragmented Zones of Transition”. In July, a joint workshop with the research group KIM – Critical AI Studies at Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe took place in the rooms of the ZeM, and in November there was a lecture and workshop with Alan Shapiro on “Scientific Revolutions of Computer Programming” at the ZeM. In December, the two artists Caroline McMillan and Jasmine Guffond were guests at the ZeM for two Artist Talks, and in January 2020 a workshop with Jennifer Gabrys (University of Cambridge) took place.

The fellows of the research group SENSING: Daniel Stoecker, Christian Schwinghammer, Anja Breljak, Vanessa Oberin, Alice Soiné, Kate Donovan, Nicole Schimkus (f.l.t.r., photo: Birgit Schneider).

In August 2020, members of the SENSING College participated in the festival “Listening to the Universe. Radiophonies of Space”. The previous coordinator of the research group, Dr. Kathrin Friedrich, has been appointed to the professorship of Media Studies/Digital Media Culture at the University of Bonn as of April 2021. The post-doc position in the SENSING research group was taken over by Priv.-Doz. Dr. Bernd Bösel. In June 2021, the Kolleg organized the conference “Other(ing) Sensing. Practices, Politics and Ethics of Sensitive Media” as an online event hosted at ZeM. Also online, the June 2021 lecture by Ute Kalender on “Cripping AI. Perspectives of Disability Studies on Artificial Intelligence” took place. In September 2022, the fellows looked back on four years of research and collaboration and presented their results at a final symposium at the Xplanatorium Schloss Herrenhausen in Hannover together with six other research training groups funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Originally, the SENSING Research Training Group was to officially end in 2022, but due to corona it was extended until spring 2023.

The public events of the research college have greatly enriched the program of events at the ZeM and were gladly taken up by the broader university public and an extended circle of ZeM members. In addition, the activities of the research college also contributed greatly to the international profile of the ZeM. We would like to thank the Volkswagen Foundation and the participating universities for their support and the trustful cooperation, and the project participants for four years of intensive exchange and many inspiring discussions.

Funded by

Funded by the participating universities