Programme

speakers: Joanna Murzyn , Alicja Kupiec , Julia Figołuszka

In the space between 0 and 1, where code meets rituals, we gather to open the gates of possibility of this year's SICT edition. This will not be a typical conference opening. This will be a shared moment to acknowledge the collective intention that binds us here. This week, we explore how to build resilient futures in a world of technological contradictions, but resilience doesn't begin in systems or infrastructure, it begins in our bodies, in our relationships, in the connections we forge with each other.

Through this opening ceremony, we'll plant the seeds of that resilience together. Come as you are. Bring your questions, your hopes, your rebellion. We'll open the code of this gathering together, creating sacred space where technology remembers it has a soul, where every voice holds equal power, and where the resilience we seek to build in our futures is first cultivated in the present moment, in this room, in these bodies, in this shared breath.

speakers: Adrien Tournier

Mobile networks are in continual evolution—constantly updated in order to remain the same, to borrow Wendy Chun’s formulation. Habits shift, or  mostly persist; new networks and new terminals promise transformation while often delivering more of the familiar, wrapped in recurring narratives of revolution. The ongoing deployment of 5G invites us to interrogate the temporalities and trajectories of mobile networks at both local and global scales. Revisiting changes in market structures, mobile practices, and consumption patterns in Europe since the 1990s can help us clarify what, precisely, constitutes “change” in mobile networks—and how these infrastructures both reshape and reproduce existing sociotechnical arrangements.

speakers: Organisers

A chance for you to learn about the organisers through quick, 5 minute, presentations on their backgrounds, research and what drew them to SICT.

speakers: Paola Tubaro

This presentation highlights the commonalities and interdependencies between the different impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on the natural and social surroundings that supply resources for its production and use. Mapping the classical tripartite division of land, labour and capital, the analysis highlights the persistence of inherited inequalities in the globalised production of AI. The countries that drive AI development generate a massive demand for inputs and trigger social costs that they shift to more peripheral regions. The unbalanced flows of resources from poorer to richer areas of the world reveal how the arrangements in place result are unsustainable and constitute a concrete manifestation of the concept of digital extractivism.

speakers: Hugo Estecahandy

In January 2022, a massive power blackout hit Central Asia, and especially the southern region of Kazakhstan after months of a huge rise in electricity consumption in the country and a few days after deadly demonstrations repressed by law enforcement. According to the Kazakhstani authorities, this huge power was partly attributable to cryptocurrency mining, an energy-intensive digital industry, highly developed within the country. This article aims to analyse and understand the geopolitical dynamics behind the fast and huge-scale development of the activity in Kazakhstan. The paper explores the geography of mining to and within the country, and relates it to the double territory’s divide, both climatic and energetic. Then, it analyses the political aspect of mining focusing on actors and networks of power involved in, sometimes illegal, crypto mining in Kazakhstan. Finally, this work discusses the future of the industry regarding the new regulation since 2023 and its limits.

speakers: Attendees

A chance for you to learn about fellow attendees through quick, 5 minute, presentations on their backgrounds, research and what drew them to SICT.

speakers: Andrea Di Maria , Dominik Hubert , Geert Te Boveldt

speakers: Fabien Lebrun

Critical awareness seems to be emerging against our connected world, in particular concerning the harmful impacts of screens on children (brain development, obesity, myopia, addiction, cyber harassment, cyber pornography, etc.), the weakening of our individual and collective freedom (mass surveillance, social networks serving the interests of antidemocratic regimes), or the ecological impact of computing devices and digital infrastructure (energy and water consumption, various kinds of digital pollution), all being intensified by « artificial intelligence”. But rarely is such cristicism developed in a systemic way by addressing the human cost of mining in its relation to the high tech sector, especially in the Congo (DRC). And yet, what we are faced with is a choice of civilization, as day after day capitalism proves to be more and more unlivable for humankind and unbearable for the planet.

speakers: Organisers/Attendees

A chance for you to learn about fellow attendees through presentations and table conversations.

speakers: Patrick Brodie

This talk will articulate what I call the “geopolitical ecology of AI” – the increasing overlap between geopolitical and economic interdependency during the so-called “twin transition” of digitalisation and decarbonisation. At a time of rapid AI expansion and industrialisation, alongside necessary attempts to decarbonise the economy, the conflation of economic, environmental, and national security complicates and undermines attempts to develop truly just and democratic twin transition policies. Arguing this in the context of Ireland’s economic dependency on the US and pressure to fall into line with European security interests, I will show how Ireland’s compromised twin transition policies are undermining democratic accountability and economic sovereignty in the context of infrastructural, resource, and ecological development. This talk thus illustrates the ways that the displacement of sustainability for digitalisation and security in industrial policy is deepening the contradictions of an eco-modern transition whose terms are dictated by monopoly tech.

ARAU

A visit with the NGO “ARAU” to shed light on existing alternatives for network expansion and their potential downsides.

Meeting point: Place Rouppe (Corner with Midi Sreet, In front of restaurant “Houtsiplou”) 1000 Brussels

speakers: Marie Garin

In this talk, I will share my thesis journey and the epistemological shift—from mathematics to the studies of science and technology—that characterizes it.

Google, federated learning, and privacy protection, or how to redefine a problem to better invizibilize it. First, I will discuss a machine learning method introduced by a team of Google researchers that allows AI models to be trained without the need to centralize data in a single location: federated learning. This data architecture is often presented as guaranteeing privacy, although numerous studies show that it is possible to infer information from training data. In order to understand how this framing came about, I am conducting a controversy analysis. This case study supports the analysis, developed by certain critical studies of AI, that Big Tech's engagement in the field of “ethical AI” is aimed at avoiding forms of questioning of their practices.

Discrimination and artificial intelligence. Analysis of framing through a genealogical approach. In this section, I focus on the discourse, controversies, and scientific statements that have led to the currently dominant framing of discrimination linked to AI algorithms based on machine learning. To do this, I analyze in detail the year 2016, which was marked by controversy surrounding the Compas recidivism prediction software based on actuarial tools, used in criminal justice in the United States. This event greatly contributed to the establishment of the FairML field of research and to the public debate on these issues. Second, I historicize this framing by focusing on the controversies surrounding the discriminatory nature of actuarial risk assessment tools that pitted the civil rights and feminist movements against the insurance industry in the United States in the second half of the 20th century.

speakers: Stefanie Kunkel

In this workshop, we want to use the rebound archetype cards (link) designed by Laetitia Bornes and Marcia Tavares Smith to explore rebound effects of AI. We will particularly focus on environmental impacts of AI. The environmental impacts of AI encompass two types of impacts: the first type are direct environmental impacts, related to the AI systems’ life cycle energy and material consumption, such as from AI training, or hardware production. The second type are indirect impacts that arise when AI systems are applied in application domains such as industrial companies or private households. As AI applications increasingly influence human decision-making this leads to changes in production and consumption behavior, e.g., how money and time are spent. This in turn has environmental consequences, e.g., increased consumption of fast fashion through targeted advertisement.

In this workshop, we apply a wide definition of rebound effects as “indirect impacts” of AI. Using a Miro Board template (link), we will explore scenarios of AI development and use, and their rebound effects. We will then discuss the results and brainstorm solutions how to minimize negative rebound effects in AI systems and maximize potential positive ones.

Groot Eiland

Social Project and Community City Farm.

Location: 41-43 Quai du Hainaut, 1080 Molenbeek, Brussels

speakers: Antoine Hardy

This presentation is based on five years of qualitative research in scientific communities in France. Drawing on data from around 100 interviews and numerous observations, it shows how scientists are undergoing a “moral change” in which scientific activities are being questioned, and sometimes redifined, in light of their effects on the environment. This talks will show the consequences of this change, which have led to initiatives by a group of French scientists to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from laboratories, changes in personal practices, and even “exit” from research.

speakers: Anne Baillot

I think I can speak for all the participants of the winter school when I write the following: We work in fields where it is impossible not to be aware of the extent of the polycrisis, and appalled at how slowly academic structures move towards sustainability. We find ourselves in a situation of profound contradiction, as our research keeps proving that the way we act, and this includes the context in which we conduct our research and teaching, is not compatible with a livable future. And even if we try our best: all institutional victories, while demanding a lot of energy and effort, remain marginal in the big picture.

In this session, I propose to discuss concretely how to address this contradiction. In a short presentation, I will give an input on sufficiency approaches and on civil disobedience options. We will then split into 3 to 5 groups for 40 minutes, discussing prospective scenarios for higher education and research, and proposing concrete steps to address them (identification of leverages, actors, measures, implementation steps). I will suggest scenarios based on the discussions of the first days of the winter school, the participants will have the possibility to contribute to defining them as well. When reconvening, each group will be given the opportunity to present findings as well as blockers. The goal of this collaborative session is to empower the participants to identify potential allies and targets in their respective contexts. I will then show how these action points can be supported by existing organisations and structures that bring an activist experience and emotional resilience we are lacking in the academic context.

speakers: Joanna Murzyn , Alicja Kupiec , Julia Figołuszka

We have gathered knowledge and woven connections. We have held the contradictions of technology in our heads and hearts. Now, we must harvest what we've grown and carry it forward into the world.

This will not be a conference closing you can expect. This will be a Slavic blessing ceremony, an ancient practice of honoring what was, acknowledging what is, and releasing what will be. In Slavic tradition, nothing truly ends. It only transforms, cycles, and returns in new forms.

The resilience we've cultivated in our bodies this week, in our relationships, in our shared presence, all this doesn't stay in Brussels! It travels with you and multiplies through you. Each of you will receive a blessing for the path ahead, you leave with protection and purpose, and with the knowing that you don't walk alone. The circle might close, but the work continues.

speakers: All/Optional

A chance for you to reflect, share and feedback on SICT 2026.