EpisTeaM aims to develop a team proposing an epistemology that is located within a genealogy of thinking that understands epistemology and technology as a mode of technē (technical practices that influence the way in which knowledge construction takes place), that possesses an irreducible political and social dimension.

The overall objectives of the project are as follows:

  Reseach Objective (1) To develop a digital hermeneutic framework (WP1) and platform for deliberation (text, image, and speech) to demonstrate alternative epistemological processes in specific disciplines (Digital Studies, Architecture, New Media, Neuroscience and proton accelerator Physics).

Reseach Objective (2) To develop and implement a framework for responsible and ethical technological innovation (WP2), including technological impact assessments tools which incorporate a inter/transdisciplinary approach in specific disciplines (Architecture and the Built Environment,

Neuroscience, and Media Studies). Reseach Objective (3) To develop and investigate specific examples of contemporary epistemological challenges related to cognition and emotion (WP3) using machine learning. EpisTeaM will research the ethical and epistemological impacts of post-human embodied cognition leading to epistemic values.

Reseach Objective (4) To develop alternative epistemologies (WP4) through the new modes of experimentation (technological failures and fabulations) and alternative histories of technological evolution. These modes of experimentation will be embedded in specific techno-scientific contexts (AI, Particle Physics, Architecture).

Work Package 1 — Digital Studies and Epistemology

This WP will study the impact of (digital) technology on human knowledge production.

The impact of digital technologies on meaning-making processes are understood as epistemological shifts in processes of annotation and interpretation of text, the visual, and speech.

The WP will develop an epistemological framework for the consideration of complex digital assemblages including the historical development (NooSphere) of specific technologies (organology) and their societal impacts, both positive and negative (pharmacological).

PhD students will systematically study the history of noesis (process of thinking) and develop critical perspectives on noodiversity (diversities of knowledge).

These structured annotations offer potential approaches to improving neural-network-based machine learning techniques in terms of human computer interaction and explainability, with a commensurate positive impact on their performance in a climate of increased ethical scrutin.

Work Package 2 — Digital Perception and Built Reality

This WP will explore the relationship between technology and the perception of the built environment.

Objective 1 the development of multiple technologies of spatial representation whether that be through representations of space in augmented reality or virtual reality.

Objective 2 is to explore how this epistemological framing of space has come to the fore in the fields of Architecture and Urbanism and Art Education poses fundamental epistemological issues.

Objective 3 to establish a basis for analysing the impact of digital technologies on outstanding, memorable, or iconic landmarks that define and create local identity and urban context.

Objective 4 to develop new methods of understanding the relationship between architectural creation and digital techniques. The expected outcome is to influence the approach on architectural education and art education in relation with perception through technology and digital means of communication.

Work Package 3 — Sensing the Body

Sensing the body (Lead by UPCT) will study the current relationship between technology and human beings from the individual body perspective, based on the analysis of physiological signals that give rise to individual emotions and cognition, from interfacing the body with a prosthetic approach. This work package will also investigate Neuroethics and discuss the ethical dimension of human screening.

Work Package 4 — Techné and the Experiment

This WP involves a historical analysis of the relationship between the techniques, technics and technologies of the experiment and has two distinct aims:

a) To cultivate a critical, inclusive, and holistic understanding of important epistemological affairs, focusing on digital technologies and digitally driven ways of knowing. xt.

b) To aid and unveil alternative/experimental epistemologies (that is, alternative ways to experiment with technology and alternative ways of knowing in some specific techno-scientific context) that are worth exploring further in a particular research conte

The EpisTeaM Consortium is formed by 14 academic and non-academic partners of which the majority (academic partners) are funding members of the ECT+lab. The main objective of EpisTeaM partnership is to build on the previous findings and further the collaboration of the network.

EpisTeaM Academic partners are, Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin, IE, coordinator of the action), Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena(UPCT, SP), Technological University of Cluj-Napoca (UTC, RO), Darmstadt University (Hd_a, DE), Technological University of Riga (RTU), Technological University of Cyprus( CUT), Technological University of Troyes (UTT), Washington University (WU) and University of Sarvajani (SCET).

Academic partners add specific disciplinary expertise in technical practices, in relation to Experimental arts and Media practice, Architecture and Urbanism and Neuroscience. The non-academic partners, Baltan Laboratories (NL), Apo3 (FR), GSI (DE), InSTEAD (SP), Cluj Innovation Park (RO) are sites where the disciplinary technical practices take place.