What kind of book tours feature our faculty? In this post, we highlight Professor Aram Sinnreich, who is on tour with his book The Secret Life of Data: Navigating Hype and Uncertainty in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance, co-authored with Jesse Gilbert.
One twist for academics: beyond bookstores, their appearances can include centers… or even musical appearances. For this post, we highlight his appearance as an invited panelist at Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Law School. He also gave a book talk and live musical performance at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY, alongside Jesse Gilbert and Paul “DJ Spooky” Miller, and delivered a book talk at the Stanford Tech Impact and Policy Center in Palo Alto, California.
The book itself explores the complex and often unexpected ways that data surveillance, AI, and algorithms shape our culture and society. At the core is one big idea: data never behaves the way we expect it to. No matter how it is collected or what it is meant to do, data always ends up taking on a “secret life.”
Across his tour, Professor Sinnreich is not so much selling the book as starting a series of conversations about culture and media with different experts and audiences. The two examples above are a reminder for how academic research can move beyond the classroom and into public and creative spaces.