Zoom link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/98985906314.

You are invited to the new DSI’s research group, “The Digital Underground: Theory+Practice” (DIG-undr). "DIG-undr" is a project of the Tangent Lab, an open-ended research collective founded by Imani Cooper Mkandawire (DSI+Comparative Literature) and Irina Aristarkhova (DSI+Stamps School) to imagine and engender inclusive machines. Our group seeks to mine affinities and tensions between digital theory and various forms of practice (industry, art, design, activism), as well as the academy and its “outside” (the publics, the users, digital infrastructure).

The group will meet once a month in January, February, March and April 2021. This is an open research group and our first meeting will be on January 28, 2021, 2-4 pm on Zoom. At this first meeting we will discuss pressing research challenges related to theory+practice configurations, unique intellectual community around theory+practice collaborations at the DSI, and brainstorm a collective project. In Winter 2021, we are particularly interested in digital theory around AI, data science, machine learning, social robots, VR/AR and art, architecture, design and activism (democracy, racial justice, feminism, social change). Please see the poster attached herewith.