Walks and Talks

Beelden in Leiden, Studium Generale, and the Oude Sterrewacht invite you to Scales of Luminosity, a public series of conversations held on Tuesday, June 21. To mark the summer solstice, several interdisciplinary dialogues around darkness and light will take place throughout the afternoon between artists participating in this year's Beelden in Leiden, as well as scientists and scholars based in this city. These thematic conversations will begin in several collections and institutions across Leiden, followed by a walk to the different sculptures at the Hooglandse Kerkgracht by  Lisa van Casand, Robert Glas, Clémence Lollia Hilaire, Leandros Ntolas, and Marit Westerhuis. All of the sculptures commissioned by Beelden in Leiden react to the phenomenon of darkness across biological, historical, or astronomical contexts, spanning the farthest reaches of the universe to the deepest trenches of the ocean floor.

In addition to these thematic walks, Scales of Luminosity will culminate with a public event at the Oude Sterrewacht with special guest Professor Luis Campos. Prof. Campos is the Baker College Chair for the History of Science, Technology and Innovation at Rice University and previous Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair of Astrobiology at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He will be joined by artistic and scientific practitioners from Leiden, exploring the visual and conceptual dimensions of darkness. 

Scales of Luminosity takes place in the context of Leiden 2022 European City of Science.

More information to be announced!

The project of Artificial Intelligence bears the promise of providing a tool for overcoming certain limitations of human decision making and action. With the abundance of analyzable data available these days, so-called algorithmic decision-making tools are being developed to help humans solve complex problems in both the public, commercial and private domain. However, whether or what such systems actually achieve, largely depends on who gets to define the problem to be solved, what data are available to them (and what aspects of the problem can be datafied in the first place), and what criteria of success are used in the development or deployment of the system. At the same time, such systems fundamentally transform societal processes and positions of power. For example, social media algorithms have a global impact on what information reaches whom, without the accountability mechanisms that govern traditional media. In this lecture, Francien Dechesne and Lexo Zardiashvili will discuss their research into the fundamental impacts of algorithmic decision making on society and human dignity, and in particular discuss issues of bias, fairness and power.

Other lectures in this lecture series can be found here (in Dutch).

Speakers

Dr. Francien Dechesne, assistant professor, at the Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw), Leiden University, and Lexo Zardiashvili, researcher, teacher, and PhD candidate at eLaw, Leiden University.  

Date, time and signing up

Monday Evening
5 September
19.30-21.00
Lipsius Building, room 028
Cleveringaplaats 1
Leiden