September 16th, 11am-1pm, Gallery 1, John Hansard Gallery, 142, 144 Above Bar St, Southampton SO14 7DU, in-person, registration link
Climate justice and tech justice are not only interlinked as intersectional frameworks to address the ecological and social impacts of contemporary technological promises. Reaching more critically as overlaid approaches, they map out the histories of how imperial commands of technology enabled climate change through the subjugation of ecologies, peoples, and their cultures across geographies.
From resource extractions in the colonies, fueling the factories and machines across the British Empire, to the military-industrial-academic complex [1] that bolstered the material and ideological structures [2] of oppression and today’s increase in data centres, technology’s role in the imperial project expanded over time. The centuries-old colonial templates of technology research, development and deployment by states and corporations are part of Big Tech’s global dominance. Entering an extreme digitalisation of everyday life, the climate impacts of today’s technological advancements in big data and AI are increasingly evidenced as the environmental impacts of the industry [3] and their systems’ further exacerbation of social injustices [4].
This tech justice assembly asks how the long and continued history of oppressive uses of technology is deeply intertwined with the making of the climate crisis. As technology is increasingly pedestalled as a tool to either solve climate change or as a justification for the sacrifice of natural resources and human labour and lives, a key aim of the gathering is to focus on several key intersections between climate justice and tech justice and to draw critical attention to the long established, uneven impacts of climate change and datafication on marginalised peoples. We are interested in positions, examples, approaches and critical awareness situated in history and impacting contemporary lives.
The event will take the form of a roundtable that will be started by short provocations from moderators and speakers, including Stephen Cornford and more to be announced later, followed by a discussion with everyone. Refreshments will be available before and after.
The event will be moderated by Angela YT Chan and Alexandra (Sasha) Anikina, collaborators on the project “a public infrastructure”. You can read more about the context of the project here: https://criticalinfrastructures.net/projects/a-public-infrastructure/.
open call
If you would like to take part in the Assembly as a contributor / speaker, please drop us an email (A.Anikina@soton.ac.uk and A.Chan@soton.ac.uk) with a couple of sentences of what you would like to share and a short description of yourself (of any kind that will allow us to understand what context and positionality you are coming from), by 1 September 2026. We will cover travel from within the UK and a small honorarium of £100 will be provided.
We would particularly welcome responses from people living in Hampshire and anyone who has familiarity with climate justice work, approaches and methods in the UK, as well as those directly affected by the effects of climate catastrophe. We are looking for short statements or thought-provoking questions aiming for 5 min max length. It might be a case study, a question you are grappling with, a method of resistance, an observation on material infrastructure, economy or cultural aspects, or anything else.
We are also inviting suggestions of questions that you find particularly urgent in the context of UK intersections of climate and tech justice. We will include the relevant questions in the discussion. Do drop us a line if you have any suggestions.
schedule
11.00-11.30 welcome and refreshments
11.30-13.00 roundtable
13.00-14.00 resfreshments and chat
short bios
Stephen Cornford is Associate Professor of Art and Technoecologies. He is a media artist and writer who investigates the relationships between technologies and landscapes, between media systems and planetary systems. His work critically questions the environmental impacts of consumer electronics and scientific sensing practices, challenging the viability of addressing ecological collapse through extractive and economic logics. Stephen's recent films, essays and drawings explore the role of technical images in earth science, extractive industry and climate action.
Angela YT Chan - Angela is a researcher and artist investigating climate change narratives through colonial history, technology, and justice. She is the Research Fellow/Artist in Residence for SOUNDSCALE.
Alexandra (Sasha) Anikina is a media theorist, artist and activist working on infrastructures and technology imaginaries. She is Associate Professor in Digital Media and Technocultures at the University of Southampton and Co-I on SOUNDSCALE.
This event is part of a public infrastructure, a project by Alexandra (Sasha) Anikina and Angela YT Chan that asks “To what extent technological infrastructures are in the hands of the public?” It includes a meeting space inside Gallery 1 where the artists will host the workshops. In addition, a public infrastructure will host a continuous programme of conversations, a reading group and working sessions on the interconnected themes of technology, social, racial, gender and climate justices. It is part of UKRI-funded project SOUNDSCALE at the University of Southampton soundscale.ac.uk.
references
- CAAT, Weaponising Universities: Research Collaborations between UK Universities and the Military Industrial Complex https://caat.org.uk/publications/weaponising-universities-research-collaborations-between-uk-universities-and-the-military-industrial-complex/
- The Influence Industry Project, Digital Influence and Climate Friction Gathering 2024 https://influenceindustry.org/en/resources/digitalclimategathering2024/
- https://datasociety.net/climate-technology-and-justice/
- Mirca Madianou, Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022