Dear All,

We are happy to announce the next seminar of our Critical Computing seminar series. This month (January), we are reading the book, "Designing Publics https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/designing-publics" by Christopher A. Le Dantec https://ledantec.net/, and we will discuss the book with him on* Friday, Feb 5, 2021* from* 2-3:30 PM EST *over a Zoom meeting. We invite you all to join the seminar. Please check this link https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/critical-computing-seminar/Christopher%20Le%20Dantec.html to find more details about the seminar and register for the seminar here http://www.bit.ly/ccs05. A flyer is also attached to this email and I have appended the seminar details at the bottom of this email. You can find more information about this seminar series and upcoming speakers by following this link https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/critical-computing-seminar/index.html. You can also subscribe to our mailing list https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/criticalcomputing-thirdspace to receive regular updates about the future speakers of this seminar.

Please feel free to forward this invitation to *anyone* *interested* (*within and outside UofT*). If you have access to the UofT online library, you will be able to download and read this book for free at this link https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/book/7845164.

We look forward to seeing you all at the seminar!

Best Regards, Ishtiaque Ahmed and Robert Soden Critical Computing Seminar Team https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/critical-computing-seminar/people.html

=========== Seminar Details: ===========

DISCUSSION WITH CHRISTOPHER A. LE DANTEC BOOK: DESIGNING PUBLICS

5 FEBRUARY, 2021 AT 2-3.30 PM, EST

The registration link: here http://www.bit.ly/ccs05 Find the e-book link: here https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/book/7845164

*Christopher A. Le Dantec*, Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology

Bio: Chris Le Dantec is an Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, jointly appointed in the School of Interactive Computing and the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. He teaches in the Digital Media, HCI, and Human-Centered Computing programs. Through the Participatory Publics Lab (PPL) at Georgia Tech, he works with students and community members to build sociotechnical systems that support collective action through community and civic engagement by practicing participatory design, co-creating new artifacts and technical forms with community members to assert identity, to contend with local issues, and to respect community emotions, beliefs, and desires. His research touches a number of different domains, including: Human-Computer Interaction, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Social Computing, Urban Informatics, Science and Technology Studies, Participatory Design, Design Research.

*Book Abstract*: Contemporary computing technologies have thoroughly embedded themselves in every aspect of modern life -- conducting commerce, maintaining and extending our networks of friends, and mobilizing political movements all occur through a growing collection of devices and services designed to keep and hold our attention. Yet what happens when our attention needs to be more local, collective, and focused on our immediate communities? Perhaps more important, how can we imagine and create new technologies with local communities? In Designing Publics, Christopher Le Dantec explores these questions by designing technologies with the urban homeless. Drawing on a case study of the design of a computational infrastructure in a shelter for homeless women and their children, Le Dantec theorizes an alternate vision of design in community contexts. Focusing on collective action through design, Le Dantec investigates the way design can draw people together on social issues and create and sustain a public. By "designing publics" he refers both to the way publics arise out of design intervention and to the generative action publics take -- how they "do design" as they mobilize and act in the world. This double lens offers a new view of how design and a diverse set of design practices circulate in sites of collective action rather than commercial production. Best Regards, Ishtiaque

Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute https://www.torontosri.ca/ University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto