Sofie Kronberger: Sensing Bodies, Reading Minds

Sensing Bodies, Reading Minds. Re-Configurations of Hearing & Listening under Data Capitalism
18:15
Understandings of the nature and use of hearing itself have never been constant, but have always been shaped by socio-political, cultural and economic factors. Amidst ongoing hypes of »more-than-human-knowledge«, AI and Big Data now promise to again shift biomedical understandings of hearing. Enveloped in a burgeoning data economy, the datafication of personal preferences and soundscapes impacts conceptions of »good« and »normal« hearing, moving from a quantified, standardized and speech-based notion towards one of personalization, promising patient »empowerment«. The act of listening has, in this way, become a contested category. Listening to patients, as well as their bodies, plays a central, often idealized role for medical practitioners. At the same time, patients are often expected to fit into normative standards of the ideal auditory citizen. Now, increasingly, listening machines have begun to supplement and take over the role of health professionals and patients, listening not only to, but with and for their users. By highlighting the role of the political economy of AI, this talk examines the sensory politics of the underlying ideologies that shape human and non-human hearing and listening.