The Technological Pandemic: The Present & Future of Coming Together
Pandemics persist. They recede, are managed, resurface, mutate, and become endemic so that what was once seen as a threat becomes a part of our viral and microbial ecosystems. Biological pandemics are managed by technologies. Long after the effects of the pandemics recede, the technologies used to manage them become a part of our social and political organization. This project draws from collaborative community workshops in Hong Kong, New Delhi, and New York, to combine story-telling, contextualization, and re-mediation of the global experiences of the COVID19 pandemic. In the process it invites reflection on the changing nature of technologies, how they were shaped in the localised management of the global pandemic, and what this means for our present and future of coming and being together.
Nishant Shah
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Present | :GAIN — The Generative AI Network
A global network that invests in building anticipatory skills for communities to engage with generative AI on their own terms, centring gender, sexuality, freedom of expression, and climate justice.
2023 | Break / Change / Regenerate — Art Residency
Hosted by Goethe Institute India, this residency brought together artists, technologists, and researchers to imagine regenerative approaches to AI futures through collaborative art-making.
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2022 | Doing Things with Stories
With Oxfam Novib and Radboud University, exploring how storytelling becomes a tool for change in humanitarian and development contexts.
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2022 | Once Upon a Tomorrow
Hosted by Goethe Institute India, this residency brought together artists, technologists, and researchers to imagine regenerative approaches to AI futures through collaborative art-making.
2018–2022| Digital Earth Fellowship
Fellowship programme with Hivos (NL) & Swedish International Development Agency supporting artists and researchers to imagine a planetary sensorium.
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2020–Present | Platform Futures
A long-term research programme with Google and Digital Asia Hub, exploring governance, accountability, and public interest futures for digital platforms in Asia.
Link: (Archived books)
2019-2020 I Human-Centric AI Principles
With Facebook India, exploring how policy design and rapid prototyping can guide AI governance in local contexts. Report Here
2015-2017 I Making Change
collaborative research project between the Centre for Digital Cultures and the Hivos Knowledge Programme (October 2013–September 2015) that questioned traditional understandings of social change in the Global South and aimed to build more adequate frameworks to address the idea of change in the context of common knowledge, networked media and information societies.
Archives Here
2010-2013 I Digital AlterNatives With a Cause?
aims to understand how young people in the Global South are using digital technologies to create positive social change and participate in political processes, while also challenging simplistic notions about digital natives and promoting a more nuanced understanding of their role in society.
Archives Here