I am really not one to get excited about anything material. But when I learned about this charity bath bomb that is available in Lush stores until the end of the month, I was itching to part with my cash to get my hands on one. Lush has partnered with Access Now to help raise…
Author: Kate
Discourses around privacy
In a seminar today we were asked where we would put ourselves on a scale from 0-10 where private is 0 and open is 10. Is this even the right scale to be talking about and through? I wonder whether we are using appropriate language to critically talk about what we mean by privacy in the post-digital age… Privacy…
Digital Division, a commentary on the rich and poor
I’ve recently read an article by the Daily Dot entitled “Privacy is creating a new digital divide between the rich and poor” and it feels problematic. It explores how only the educated and wealthy can afford to be private citizens in the digital. What does it mean to be wealthy in the post-digital age? What…
laptop:config
Until now, I have been parading around with my (comparatively heavy) 5-year-old Macbook Pro that is eccentrically covered in pop-culture stickers and has the webcam taped over. The very explicit act of covering my webcam is quite often a talking point and although I am not the only to do it amongst my colleagues, there…
DML Ignite
In the very likely event that I don’t make myself clear in my ignite at DML …….. Today I talked about the Inflammatory Bowel Disease community, in which there is a culmination of people from different backgrounds who live on a day-to-day basis with Crohn’s or Ulcerative Colitis. It’s not considered a ‘rare’ disease, but…
An Open PhD
My life as a PhD candidate has begun at Horizon CDT! I plan on making the development of my thesis and projects open – an ‘Open PhD’ if you will. This isn’t going to be a day-to-day account, but an outward facing space for my thoughts that I am open to discuss with others in…
I Escaped
There could be many potential readings into this blog’s title, but it isn’t all that “Escape from Alcatraz”, although it kinda is… I have now left my position at Coventry and I feel free. Free to learn what excites me and with other like-minded folks. I’m sure that in a few months time I won’t…
Read the Future of the City
Yesterday I was asked to Read the Future of the City and in the wake of Brexit*, I didn’t feel like the future (at least the near future) was looking very bright nor prosperous. I went to City Arcadia Festival‘s evening with Lauren Heywood where we played cards and drank (super yummy) soup. Lauren Heywood,…
Self-surveillance and memory
I often talk about the idea of surveillance and ‘dragnets’ and often I am talking about other people surveilling us. What I have been thinking about recently is our ability to self-surveil and interpret. Something that the digital affords is memory: transactions and files are stored in a binary computer readable format that can be…
#PrivacyUG Session One reflections
This week marked the first of three #privacyUG sessions. #privacyUG stands for “privacy underground” and it is an open and connected class around privacy. I called it underground because I wanted to add intrigue and fun into the sessions so that anyone physically attending would have to follow the cryptic instructions about how we can…