This talk confronts an evident truth about contemporary generative text and image systems (so-called 'artificial intelligence'): much what they make is trash. These systems produce both informational and environmental pollution at an unprecedented clip, sacrificing water, energy, informational commons, social trust, human cognitive skills, and carbon budgets in order to win some very questionable benefits […]

ℹ️ Please note that the event will be held in a hybrid format. Overview Sanjana Paul discusses data centres, public health, environmental justice, and how policy can respond. The rise of generative AI has resulted in a rapid expansion of data centres globally. While data centres are mostly presented as a need and a progress, […]

ℹ️ Please note that the event will be held in a hybrid format.In this talk, I will present the key principles and preliminary findings of the ERC project, 'Visual Trust'. Reliability, accountability and forgery in scientific, religious and social images (2021-2027, PI: Roger Canals). This comparative project aims to investigate, through visual and experimental methods, […]

In this session, I will share some theoretical and methodological reflections on how to conduct experimental research cinema about “visual trust”. To do so, I will introduce the principle of “studying images through images” and I will comment on the importance to critically connect theoretical approaches with practical, aesthetic, and ethical choices. To illustrate these […]

ℹ️ Please note that the event will be held in a hybrid format.A session in collaboration with the Contemporary Intimacies, Sexualities & Genders (CISG) research group. Parking Parking is available nearby at the University’s Booth Street West car park and the Circle Square multi-storey. Limited on-street pay-and-display bays operate on Grosvenor Street from 8 am–8 […]

Overview Please join us for the launch of Dr Briony Anderson's book 'Doxxed: How Privacy Abuse Harms' published by Bristol University Press. This event will share Dr Anderson's key findings and theoretical insights into the abuse of personal information through doxxing, and will outline the potential of informational autonomy for victim-survivors of privacy abuse. A […]

Guest seminar by visiting scholar, Tonia San Nicolas-Rocca, co-organised by the MGC and DISC. ℹ️ Please note that the event will be held in person - Geoffrey Manton GM229. Abstract: Cybersecurity education is critical to ensuring the safety of individuals online and protecting sensitive information and digital resources. As cyber threats grow in complexity and […]

Overview ℹ️ Please note that the event will be held in a hybrid format. Please join us for a talk with Dr Guido Anselmi - University of Catania. The platformisation of society, how digital platforms reshape economic, social, and cultural life, has become a key topic in recent scholarship. Central to this process is the […]

ℹ️ Please note that the event will be held in a hybrid format (Grosvenor East and Online). Overview This panel brings together three scholars exploring how fatness is represented, constructed, mediated, and contested through digital technologies. This seminar will draw upon three separate bodies of work that converge on the critical politics of the representation, historicisation, […]

Overview Join MMU’s Digital Society (DISC) research group for a roundtable discussion and exhibition exploring the political, social and cultural impacts of AI and digital technology. In 2024, members of DISC launched a new initiative – the AI literacy working group – to address the urgent need to understand our engagement with AI in various areas of […]

Please join us for this international seminar, which inaugurates the new academic year and has been co-organised by the Digital Society Research Group in the School of History, Politics and Philosophy and the Postfoundational Futures Research Group in the School of Education. The seminar will feature a panel of three papers, with the abstracts provided […]