Polynocular Tech Lab – Laboratory for Reflective and Transdisciplinary Technology Development
Technology development is often a process among experts. Behind factory gates and laboratory doors, developers work on hardware and software that influence our everyday lives and define the scope but also the limits of our actions. For example, when algorithms decide on the basis of data records into which risk category insured persons are grouped or which journalistic news are displayed to different people. The driving impulses of development are often market logic and scaling potential, not necessarily sensitivity for diverse user groups and technology assessment.
Educational institutions, on the other hand, can offer a free space in which technologies can not only be developed but also questioned. This is where the Polynocular Tech Lab project comes in. In the experimental set-up of a Springschool, students and practitioners from technical, artistic and humanities and social science contexts work together. The aim is not only to jointly deconstruct existing technologies, such as codes and machines, but also to rethink and develop prototypes in practice.
The summer school is a first phase of the Polynocular Tech Lab, which will then continue in the university context. The long-term goal is to build up a canon of methods and theory for transdisciplinary technology development that can be applied both in education and in practice.
Main research areas
- Civil disobedience
- Hacktivism
- Theory of democracy
- Technology research
- Political media philosophy
Curriculum Vitae
- Since 3/2017: Consultant for digital projects / Media Policy Lab Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg
- 8/2015 – 3/2016: Curator of the festival for digital art and culture transmediale
- 8/2012 – 6/2016: Research assistant at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
- 2009: Master’s degree at the University of Cologne in theatre, film and television studies, German studies and philosophy
Presentations
- Züger, T. (2017, December). Hacktivism and other forms of digital civil disobedience, City Data Explosion, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Hamburg and Bremen.