Angela YT Chan 
(January 9, 2023 → January 13, 2023) For the Social Data School, I applied with the beginnings of my research project, Critiquing a ‘Sustainable Military’, which examines the UK Ministry of Defence’s climate change framing, whose aims set to achieve a net-zero “sustainable military” by 2050. I’m interested in and how this deflects the extended history of climate impacts incurred by centuries of colonial and ongoing projects enabled by the British military. This is a crucial and timely subject: the UK’s defence sector accounts for half of the government’s carbon emissions, making its green transition necessary, while the rapid global human and ecological devastation bring unmet calls for reparations with environmental security.
The investigation documents and inquires the greenwashing narratives of military sectors of different nations around the world. How are various states and (multinational and local) defence corporations involved? What are the public perceptions of the military in relation to climate change and climate risks (eg. UK government frames its need to face climate change with bolstered security, in light of climate refugees, social unrest)?
The talk sessions and hands-on workshops throughout the Social Data School gave me insights into digital methods, investigative and journalistic methods of approaching my research beyond my usual arts practice methodologies.
“The Social Data School is an application only online intensive teaching programme structured around the life-cycle of a digital research project, covering principles of research design, data collection, cleaning and preparation, methods of analysis and visualisation, and data management and preservation practices.
Theme: Visualising Data and Investigating Images
At this Social Data School, we will focus on the image as a place of inquiry for investigations. We will extract data from social networks, and multiple video and photographic sources, and learn how computer vision and automation can help in the investigation of public interest stories and projects. In short, we will develop a critical toolkit for interrogating the image-based cultures of the digital age.
Modules will cover the following content:
- Methodology for Digital Investigations
- Video and Image Data Analysis
- Geolocation and Open Source Investigations
- Introduction to Critical AI
- Introduction to Social Media data mining, analysis and visualisation
- Data Spatialisation using Python and Blender (TBC)”
Find out more here