Our speaker this month is Michelle Proksell. Michelle is an artist, researcher, sociologist, curator & world traveler exploring relationships between society and technology across the globe. Better known for her research on creative practices found on the Chinese internet, she also explores emotional components of user experience and immersive technologies like VR and AR.

Drawing from her international research on how people build relationships with and through technologies, Proksell will introduce her findings on intimacy, empathy, and compassion found in tech, internet practices, and art-tech projects. She will use this short lecture as a foundation of examples to then engage the audience in an interactive workshop to collectively unravel the many motivations, biases, misconceptions, and belief systems that contribute to our divide as a nation. Through participatory practice, together we will ask and explore the question: How do we employ technologies to help us navigate the upcoming election year to engage with our political counterparts in meaningful ways to encourage empathy and compassion rather than furthering the national divide?

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Join us for the discussion from 7:00PM-9:00PM, followed by drinks and camaraderie from 9:00PM-10:00PM at Firehouse Lounge (605 Brazos St).

Capital Factory is located at 701 Brazos Street, on the 16th floor of the Omni Hotel. Once on the 16th floor, there should be a sign at the front desk directing you to our meetup. If there is no sign, and no one is on duty at the desk, we are usually in the room to the left of the front desk.

Talk will be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/user/austintechlive

Parking for the Omni Garage can be validated at the Capital Factory front desk, reducing the cost from $18 to $7. Details: https://capitalfactory.com/parking/

EFF-Austin is sustained via the contributions of supporters like you. Donate via the Paypal link on our website on the right sidebar of the main page: https://effaustin.org

When:
Tuesday, February 11
7:00pm - 9pm
RSVP

Where:
Capitol Factory
701 Brazos St,
Austin, TX 78701

This event is organized not by EFF, but by the EFF Austin, a grassroots group participating in the Electronic Frontier Alliance. The EFA is a network of grassroots organizations across the country committed to promoting digital rights. Together, we're building a movement to promote freedom of expression, privacy, security, creativity, and access to knowledge.