Metric Life is a digital platform relating to the Marie Curie Fellowship project, The Over-examined Life: Ontologies of the Quantified Self, undertaken by Btihaj Ajana from Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies and King’s College London. The project addresses the growing trend of digital self-tracking and fitness monitoring, which has become prevalent in recent years.
Drawing on empirical research and theoretical analysis, the project aims to provide critical insights into the dynamics and implications of this rising culture of self-monitoring and health management, enabled by the rapid spread of tracking devices and apps in everyday life.
Metric Life is also a curatorial space designed to engage users and audiences interested in the topic of the Quantified Self and its practices, and encourage them to submit multimedia material in the form of artworks or textual reflections on their own experience of using self-tracking devices, apps and online platforms.
Btihaj Ajana is an Associate Professor and Marie Curie Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies where she is currently undertaking her research project on self-tracking and the Quantified Self culture. She is also Senior Lecturer in Culture, Digital Humanities and Creative Industries at King’s College London. Her teaching, writing and research interests are concerned with the areas of culture and identity, ethics and politics, and the philosophy of technology. She is the author of Governing through Biometrics: The Biopolitics of Identity (Palgrave, 2013), a book that provides a critical analysis of the various socio-political and ethical implications of biometric identity systems.
You can find more details on Btihaj’s academic work here.
7-9 Jun 2017
Recent years have witnessed an intensive growth of systems of measurement and an increasing integration of data processes into various spheres of everyday life, so much so that it can be argued that we are now living in a ‘metric culture’. This two-day international conference brings together relevant scholars who are engaged in the study of practices of self-tracking and related technologies to critically reflect on the way metric culture is unfolding within and affecting the various spheres of our everyday life. Organised by: Btihaj Ajana (AIAS and King’s College London) Confirmed keynote speakers: Deborah Lupton (University of Canberra, Australia) & Rosalind Gill (City University London, UK)
13 Oct 2016
A panel discussion organised by Btihaj Ajana for the Arts and Humanties Festival 2016 at King's College London. This panel addresses the rising trend of self-tracking and quantification, examining their applications as well as implications in various spheres of everyday life.
