SOBRE – ECO-MIDIA

The purpose of Eco-Mídia is to be a platform for research and community practices that unites media, information and communication technologies, digital rights and socio-environmental justice in climate and in the south-south territoriality.

THE ORIGIN

Eco-media: technology in times of socio-environmental climate emergency arises from the questioning of researcher Lori Regattieri (she/her/elu) about the role of technique, information and media in times of socio-environmental climate emergency.

From a family of rural workers and traders, my story is intertwined with learning in technical computer courses in my teens and working with my father in the automotive sector. With an interdisciplinary academic background, which was in information systems – not finalized – and social work, part of a master's degree in digital humanity and a doctorate in communication and culture, I studied disciplines such as statistics, database management, public policy formation and political economy from the media.

Over 15 years, between academic research and community practices, the project has been consolidating in terms of technique and how some systems order, privilege or make certain voices invisible. Social media platforms promote misinformation about climate change and corporate greenwashing at the expense of the south-south movement's diverse messaging for socio-environmental climate justice.

The entire industry has invested in artificial intelligence tools and this bet, by governments and corporations, proves that extractive actions perpetuate microaggressions. As with statistics and medicine, in a eugenics scientific past, there are still few mechanisms to ensure that these systems are held accountable for harm, prejudice and discrimination.

Questioning myths and fables about western progress, based on the teachings of Milton Santos, Denise Ferreira da Silva and Gilbert Simondon, instead of the global village, I consider the perversity of globalization, which selectively homogenizes and organizes the conditions for populations of the world experience the concreteness of time and the achievements of the accelerated development of information and communication technologies.

THE PROJECT

Eco-Media: Technology in times of socio-environmental climate emergency proposes, through research, community practices and collaboration with partners, to design other protocols and documentation, and build technologies at the service of those who have historically been on the margins.

The project is dedicated to the development of research, technical protocols and the elaboration of useful applications to the community, with regard to studies that cross technology, media platforms and environmental and climate justice.

WE OPERATE IN THE FOLLOWING INTERSECTIONS

Sciences, techniques and technologies from the south-south

low-impact practices, controlled scale and valuing community ties for the development of civic technologies, from decolonial intersectionalities and their sexual and gender dissent

Internet, connectivity and sovereign infrastructure

circulation architectures and appreciation of sovereign and self-determined knowledge (data, information, etc.) of indigenous communities, quilombolas and autonomous groups

Information systems, media and the hierarchical boundaries of automation

research protocols based on literature review, interviews and conversations about the main barriers and opportunities for sharing information on social media platforms and the impact of their biased algorithms

HOW WE DO

Scientific research, technical notes;
Opinion articles, interviews with researchers, technologists, makers, activists;
Technology and media laboratory, courses and workshops;
Community for creating protocols, documentation, automation systems, open codes;
Development of applications based on principles of justice, autonomy and transparency.

WHAT MOVES US

Decoloniality, based on south-south thinking;
Intersectionality, according to black feminism;
Degrowth, negotiated scale and low-impact practices, as learned from rural, quilombola and indigenous communities and all those on the margins of Western technical progress;
Decreased impacts of colonial, racist, classist, ableist, gender, sexual domination and any and all bodily dissidence;
Visibility for techniques and media to stimulate knowledge and preserve the memory of invisible populations;
Autonomy, sovereignty and justice from the incommensurability of difference and solidarity.

MAIN REFERENCES

Abong | Brazilian Association of NGOs
gif | Group of Institutes, Foundations and Companies
OC | Climate Observatory
COIAB | Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon
APIB | Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil
CONAQ | National Coordination of Articulation of Rural Black Quilombola Communities
MAB | Movement Affected by Dams
MST | Landless Workers' Movement
CPT | Pastoral Land Commission

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT