Event | NICA Masterclass “Counter-Practices” with Dr Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske (Siegen University)

Event  | NICA Masterclass “Counter-Practices” with Dr Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske (Siegen University)
Date: 16 May 2025
Time: 10:00-12:00
Location: room 0.16, Media Studies, BG1 (Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam)
Contact & Registration: L.Kopitz@uva.nl
Registration Deadline: 12 May 2025
Credits: 1 ECTS

In this masterclass, we will examine historic and contemporary media practices designed to confuse, elude and subvert processes of sensing and sense-making, ranging from (digital) camouflage, to sensor spoofing and activist media art. Faced with a situation in which media technologies and algorithms have rendered themselves largely opaque and unobservable, engaging with the intentional disruptions caused by these counter-practices offers a distinct methodological advantage for understanding sensor media’s inner working logics. Relating counter-practices to other epistemically productive concepts like glitches and breakdowns, we will explore sensor datafication through three motifs: hiding in plain sight, dis/simulation, and the exploitation of sensor logics.

The masterclass invites participants to pose questions, engage with the notion of counter-practices and discuss their approaches to sensor media and sensor datafication and relate them to the notion of counter-practice..

Reading preparation

– Borbach, C., Kanderske, M. (2024). Counter-practices. Understanding sensor datafication through subversive action. Dialogues on Digital Society, 0(0). (forthcoming)

– Götz, M., Hind, S., Lämmerhirt, D., Neumann, H., Och, A-P., Randerath, S. and Seitz, T. (eds.) (2021). In the Spirit of Addition: Taking a ‘Practice+’ Approach to Studying Media. SFB1187 Media of Cooperation Working Paper Series. 18 (June): 1-37. PDF

Bios

Christoph Borbach is a postdoctoral researcher at the collaborative research center “Media of Cooperation” at the University of Siegen. Before that, he researched and taught at Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Vienna and the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, among others. His research interests include the history of media and technology, epistemology and praxeology. His book Delay – Mediengeschichten der Verzögerung, 1850-1950 was published in 2024.

Max Kanderske is a researcher with the project “Navigation in Online-/Offline-Spaces at the collaborative research center “Media of Cooperation” at the University of Siegen. His work focuses on the media and practices of navigation, game studies and sensor media and counter-practices. He is one of the editors of Navigationen – Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaft and member of the editorial board of online Games Studies journal Spiel|Formen.