ATC Lecture: Jesse Drew and Glenda Drew, 'A Hack in the Odious Machine: Digital Organizing Tools'

Many high-tech projects that hoist the banner of "innovation" pride themselves on creating "disruption" to established modes of industry and commerce. Yet, often the disruption that ensues comes at the expense of the lives, livelihoods and neighborhoods of people in a vulnerable position on the socio-economic scale. What would a technology of disruption look like that champions the working poor? How can technologists, artists, designers and innovators "disrupt" an economic system that has led to shockingly high inequalities of wealth and has damaged an already flawed system of democratic political participation? Stories of Solidarity attempts to do just that, to build a platform of social media where low-wage, part-time, marginal and/or seasonal workers (the precariat) can share their stories, images and videos to others in the same predicament, in order to build new solidarities that can combat inequality. The goal was to create something that was visually and aesthetically appealing with the technical capacity to accommodate multiple levels of interaction. Users access stories through a geolocation-based interface, while live data feeds provide deeper context through information graphics. In the spirit of UC Berkeley's Free Speech Movement, the project asks how the resources and intellectual power of California's public university can be used to engage and empower Californians often deprived of the fruits of university research.

Glenda Drew is an artist and designer whose research and practice centers on making art that supports social change through an inventive and often playful approach at the Department of Design at UC-Davis, where she teaches screen-based and interactive design.

Jesse Drew is Professor of Technocultural Studies at UC Davis, where his research and practice centers on alternative and community media technologies and their impact on democratic societies, with a particular emphasis on the global working class.