Juliette Davret has recently been awarded the INTERSECT Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Copenhagen  

INTERSECT is an academic community led by Kristin Veel and Henriette Steiner for interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of the arts, humanities, social sciences, and design. This knowledge hub combines research on cities, landscapes and communities with questions of inequality and justice. The space offers the possibility of developing new ways of identifying and discussing slippery problems that are difficult to measure, inviting a wide range of methodologies ranging from artistic practice-based approaches to data-driven GIS methods.  

Juliette spent three weeks in April 2024 at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies of the University of Copenhagen, under the supervision of Kristin Veel. She took the opportunity to present her work during a CIRCLE seminar. Her presentation focused on the research-creation aspect of the Data Stories project. Juliette discussed how the use of research-creation encourages exploration, experimentation, play and improvisation. It creates a sense of estrangement and de-familiarisation to generate critical reflection and enables surfacing knowledge that is not easily expressed with words. Indeed, through phase 2 of the Data Stories project, Juliette is collaborating with two artists in residence, working with research-creation methods on two different case studies. She described the work she has done involving research-creation, in particular how, in collaboration with the artist Mel Galley, she has been using speculative fiction to encourage stakeholders to reflect on their use of data , and how, in collaboration with the artist Joan Somers Donnelly as part of a second case study, she has employed creative mapping exercises to reflect on the relationships that link and build the data ecosystem. She has been able to share her reflections with an audience that uses and facilitates research-creation. The discussion focused on the challenges faced by research projects in using research-creation methods.

Juliette made the most of the fellowship by establishing strong links with the Digital Culture Cluster community and discovering research overlaps with the DATALOSS project held by Nanna Bonde Thylstrup. She also benefited from the visit of other researchers in the same group, attending the keynote lecture given by Prof. Orit Halpern (Technische Universität Dresden) about ‘Financializing Intelligence’ – this research traces the relationship between neoliberal thought and neural networks. She took part in the workshop on ‘Digital Humanitarianism’ held by Prof. Fleur Johns (Sydney Law School). Finally, she participated in the ‘Critical Data & AI Lecture Series #4’ given by Amir Anwar (University of Edinburgh) about ‘Reimagining networks and geographies of AI and Machine Learning’.   

This first stay was very interesting and beneficial for the development of research-creation thinking and demonstrates the interest in developing new collaborations at the intersection of the arts, humanities and digital technologies to strengthen the involvement of stakeholders and citizens in planning practices and advocate for more liveable cities. Juliette is looking forward to returning to the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen in autumn 2024.   

Grant:

Davret, J. (2024) INTERSECT Visiting research fellowship. University of Copenhagen. 10,000 DK.