Feminist Ageing Futures in Datafied Worlds

Project Description

In this project an interdisciplinary team of senior and junior fellows will develop speculative arts- and design-based approaches. We will work at the intersection of gender studies, feminist Science and Technology Studies (feminist STS), anticipation studies and critical data studies to co-design, make and test new arts- and design-led methods for critical engagements with questions around datafied futures as they relate to the lives and (perceived) vulnerabilities of older women. We are interested in exploring how we can co-design speculative objects and experiences that make visible and challenge dominant discourses about data-driven solutions for the “crisis” of demographic ageing and suggest ways to imagine alternative preferred futures centering around care and community, equity and inclusion. The project will engage older women as co-researchers in a series of arts- and design-based workshops in Graz. Results will be presented in a public exhibition as well as through talks, publications and a symposium in Graz. The project will be the basis for a joint funding application on feminist ageing futures in datafied worlds.

Local Senior Fellow: Prof. Juliane Jarke 

Juliane Jarke is Professor of Digital Societies at the University of Graz. She is an internationally trained, interdisciplinary scholar with a background in computer science, philosophy and science and technology studies (STS). Juliane’s research attends to the transformative power of digital technologies such as AI-based systems in the public sector, education and for ageing populations. Theoretically and conceptually, her research is situated in the areas of critical data studies, new materialism and feminist STS. Methodologically, Juliane follows a design-oriented and participatory approach. This means that she collaborates on the design of socio-digital innovations with a variety of stakeholders (e.g. public authorities, citizen groups, social care service providers, NGOs), often over an extended period of time. In her research she adapts empirical social research, digital and ethnographic methods, combining them with methods of human-machine interaction (HCI) and speculative design research. More information: https://www.sociodigitalfutures.info/

Local Junior Fellow: Ren Aldridge

Ren holds a Master of Research in Creative Practice from Glasgow School of Art and a Bachelors in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her multi-disciplinary creative practice focuses on feminism, participation, community and gender based violence, most recently through a community project about feminicide: The Resistance Quilt Project. Her PhD research, due to start Winter Semester 2025/2026 will explore the role of creative participatory methods in disrupting current regimes of anticipation around both gender based violence and ageing and datafied futures.  

https://resistance-quilt.org/ 

Senior incoming fellow: Prof. Helen Manchester

Helen is Professor of Sociodigital Futures at the University of Bristol. Helen is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in cultural studies, feminist science and technology studies, co-design and material culture. Helen’s participatory and design based research foregrounds experiences of ageing, gender, culture and the arts, connectivity and digital inclusion. She is particularly interested in feminist and post human approaches to researching digital inclusion, in particular ageing and digital technologies, just futures, and participatory methods. She has had international peer reviewed journals published on subjects such as ‘care-full co-design’, drawing on posthuman feminist research and design practice and ‘intersectional participatory methods’ drawing on theories of intersectionality when working alongside minoritized communities. 

Further information: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Helen-Manchester-9d214996-dff3-4e31-b8d6-0c7ad33f09d9/

Junior incoming fellow: Steve Symons

Steve Symons is an experienced instrument maker, performer and artist working with technology. He is known for a series of early locative audio works and as a member of the three person collective, Owl Project. He is currently a doctoral researcher at The University of Sussex exploring how post-human theories of entanglement can be used to inspire novel forms of multiplayer musical experiences. https://entangled-instruments.xyz/