470km later…

Good Monday afternoon everyone!

I am successfully back from my little cycling/gravel adventure and it was absolutely unbelievable. We had sunshine, breathtaking climbs & views, lots of snacks (I am now proficient at unwrapping and eating about anything while riding a bike), lovely chats and many, many hours on our saddles spinning away. Great for when you want to take your mind off everything and unwind!

As probably expected – I didn’t think much about uni at all. However, I did come to realise about 4 days in that some things do seem a little clearer already. And while this is the briefest of all updates I thought I will share this little insight with you. I had a little reminder that I need to not only consider what would be cool and interesting to do, but what is feasible and what this project would actually look like (not the way I want to dream of it). Amongst practical considerations and interesting I have narrowed my project down to two areas.

I either want to do artefacts which visualise the environmental impact of AI (fully aware this still sounds very broad). This is based on having read “Atlas of AI” which showed very nicely how the environmental impact of AI is often forgotten and something I would enjoy adding onto by creating artefacts. A lot of research would go into the chosen materials, what the artefacts are based on (maybe some data analysis and coding of online discussions with regards to this topic) etc. Now, in order to get a better idea of how this would look like in the end I asked JB & Juli whether I would have to physically hand in the artefact or whether my submission would be based on photos of the artefact. Which, if I am being honest, might just be a make or break situation since my flat in Edinburgh is fairly small and getting material etc. would just be way easier if I were able to create artefacts back home in Austria.
Another option would be to conduct research on the public perception of either environmental impact of AI or a specific societal impact of AI (again not fully narrowed down yet). However, I could envision using the coding skills I learned during my module “Evidence and Persuasion in a Digital Age” in order to access data. I have sent out an email to my lecturer to see whether he has expert knowledge and insights into how I could conduct this research in a meaningful way. Because I realised I need to figure out how to collect data and this is a feasible and highly interesting way!

Once I have these 2 questions clarified I can make a final decision and then launch myself into this completely new chapter of my masters journey. But for now I wish you all a fabby rest of your day and hoepfully you get to enjoy some sunshine!