2(1) 2016: Quantified Selves

Browsing 2(1) 2016: Quantified Selves by Subject "ddc:323"

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  • Article
    My Quantified Self, my FitBit and I. The Polymorphic Concept of Health Data and the Sharer’s Dilemma
    Karanasiou, Argyro P.; Kang, Sharanjit (2016) , S. 123-142
    The rise of wearable tech, namely devices with sensors measuring the user’s daily activities and habits seems to be suggesting a paradox in the post-Snowden era: On one hand, it is generally accepted that unauthorised use, storage and processing of the user’s private data by the state directly clashes with our fundamental rights for privacy; on the other, the user seems to be keen on self-recording and storing one’s own data by willingly using sensors, enabling him to learn more about one’s habits, general health status or even personality. In the era of wearable tech we seem to be accepting that measuring data is not a privacy infringement but a self-surveillance exercise in a quest to get to know ourselves better, most acute to exercising one’s right to free expression. Yet, how is this addressed in legal terms? The focal point for this paper is to address the nascent phenomenon of users actively partaking in the QS movement by wilfully sharing health related datasets. Part 1 notes the transition from the “right to be let alone” to the right to own one’s data as the underlying rational for QS: is it a form of expression regarding a tradable commodity in a free market or a matter of greater public importance? Part 2 dissects the dilemma in sharing health data for public health and/or research purposes exceeding the strict limits of private sphere. The unfortunate case of Google Health, the unconstitutional purchase of Iceland’s national datasets by deCODE and the mishap of the Care.data are studied to shed light to the many faces of our Quantified Selves: Is the current legislative approach fit for facilitating the QS movement, as a type of self-expression? The paper critically examines self-measurement technologies from a legal perspective and calls for urgent reforms in self-measured data protection.
  • Article
    Quantified Faces. On Surveillance Technologies, Identification and Statistics in Three Contemporary Art Projects
    Zacher Sørensen, Mette-Marie (2016) , S. 169-176
    The article presents three contemporary art projects that, in various ways, thematise questions regarding numerical representation of the human face in relation to the identification of faces, for example through the use of biometric video analysis software, or DNA technology. The Dutch artist Marnix de Nijs’ Physiognomic Scrutinizer is an interactive installation whereby the viewer’s face is scanned and identified with historical figures. The American artist Zach Blas’ project Fag Face Mask consists of three-dimensional portraits that blend biometric facial data from 30 gay men’s faces and critically examine bias in surveillance technologies, as well as scientific investigations, regarding the stereotyping mode of the human gaze. The American artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg creates three-dimensional portraits of persons she has “identified” from their garbage. Her project from 2013 entitled Stranger Visions involves extracting DNA from discarded items she finds in public spaces in New York City, such as cigarette butts and chewing gum. She has the DNA that is extracted from these items analysed for specific genomic sequences associated with physical traits such as hair and eye colour. The three works are analysed with perspectives to historical physiognomy and Francis Galton’s composite portraits from the 1800s. It is argued that, rather than being a statistical compression like the historical composites, contemporary statistical visual portraits (composites) are irreversible and complicated amalgams. The article furthermore examines questions regarding the agency of the technologies used by the artists.