The document discusses the need for "hard humanities" and "socially robust science" to address challenges of the Anthropocene era. It argues that massive cultural innovation is required to build sustainable societies and that citizen science, open data sharing, and grassroots mapping can help design culture rather than just evolve it. A number of specific projects are described that couple art with science to empower communities and produce socially robust data.

1. The Hard Humanities And Socially
Robust Science in the Anthropocene
Roger F Malina
UT Dallas

2. The Anthropocene
• “informal” geologic chronological term that
serves to mark the evidence and extent of
human activities that have had a
significant global impact on the Earth's
ecosystems.
•
• With an impact sufficiently extensive as to be
detectable in the geological record.

3. Hard Humanities
• Transforming human societies so that they are
sustainable requires massive “cultural
innovation”
• The hard humanities are the approaches
needed to bring about systemic cultural
innovation.
• This is the first time that we are faced with
designing our culture rather than evolving it.

4. Towards « socially robust science « ?
• Helga Nowotny,
President European • .
Research Council:
• « ..Society is moving into
a position where it is
increasingly able to
communicate its wishes,
desires and fears to
Science »
• Harold Vasselin artist in
residence at the Provence
Climate Change Observatory

5. Mechanisms for Socially Robust
Science
• Open Observatory
Manifesto
•
• The RIGHT to the data
taken about you.
•
• The DUTY to
contribute open data
about your context
and environment

6. • Open Observatories:
.
• Coupling Common Sense to Common Science
• Micro-Science
o Micro Science is to the Italian Science Foundation
What Micro Credit is to the World Bank
• Making science intimate
o Owning data about your own environment
o Science creating communities own their
knowledge
o
o
• Science- Art Projects and Art-Science Projects
• Art driven use of scientific methods and
instruments
• Science driven development of cultural artifacts

7. We are becoming a data taking culture
Calm Technologies/Distributed
Sensing/Locative Media
• Weiner 1991 Xerox Parc
• Eg Eric Paulos, Intel
• www.urban-atmospheres.net/
CitizenScience
• active participation in basic
scientific data gathering
• richer, finer-grain data sets for
modeling
• mobile phone for grassroots
participation in
government and policy
making
• Trash Truck project

8. Citizen’s Science
• Environment 2.0
• FutureEverything Festival
• Drew Hemment, UK
•
• Bubbles: Meteorological
Office project with
artists and children
• Bio-Tagging: Urban
Ecology and Artists

9. People’s Science
• Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti:
Indian People’s Science
Networks
• Brazil Digital Culture projects
• Sergipe « Human Project »
o Humbi Umbi in Brazil
• Srishti School, Bangalore
• Ubiquitous micro science
producing communities
• Open Hardware
• Hacker Culture, Bricolabs
•
• OPEN OBSERVATORIES

10. Participatory Mapping
• Congo Participatory
• Click to edit Mapping Project
Master text • Buckminster Fuller
styles Challenge award
Second level finalist 2011
Third level • Empowers local forest
Fourth level communities to use
Fifth level
cutting edge
technologies to map
their lands and
resources
• Use this evidence as
advocacy and

11. Boulder USA, Community Gardens
Community Mapping

12. GRASSROOTS
MAPPING
• http://grassrootsmapping.org
•
• Click to edit Master
• MIT MEDIA LAB
text styles
• Design Ecology Group Second level
• Center for Future Civic Media Third level
Fourth level
• Fifth level
• Jeff Warren • Click to edit Master
• text styles
• Example of COMMUNITY Second level
REMOTE SENSING Third level
Fourth level
Fifth level
12

13. Leonardo Lovely Weather Residencies
SOFTDAY: Marbh Chrios
Musical Performances from Ocean Dead Zones

15. DATA
• Data is Power
• Become a data taking culture
• “Occupy” Big Data
• Citizen Science
• Arts and Humanities on the front lines of
cultural innovation
• The Hard Humanities
• Socially Robust Science