Machinising humans and humanising machines: Emotional relationships mediated by technology and material experience

With the advent of affective computing and physical computing, technological artefacts are increasingly mediating human emotional relations, and becoming social entities themselves. These technologies on one hand prompt a critical reflection on human-machine relations, and on the other hand offer a fertile ground for imagining new dynamics of emotional relations mediated by technology and materiality. This chapter describes design research drawing on theories of technology, materiality and making. Carried out through fashion and experience design, the practice amplifies the processes of mediation. By creating material playgrounds for technological and human agency, the experiments described here aim to generate knowledge about the emotional self, critical reflection on human-machine relationships, and new imagined emotional relations resulting from the hybridity of humans and technology

Protagonists of Latin American Futures

In the absence of a coherent and convincing narrative of hope, new protagonists and their solidly responsible forms of imagining and struggling for livable futures enter the stages of parliaments, social media platforms and public spaces in cities around the world. It is precisely such spirit of collective solidarity, facing multiple crises at once, that links indigenous struggles over land and environment with the young people of the climate strike movement, as Brum has it, the “first generation without hope.” This leads to the overarching question of this theme issue: Who are the protagonists of Latin American futures? Who is imagining, writing, narrating such futures – how, when and where? In this CROLAR theme issue, we map protagonists of Latin American futures, both human and non-human, looking at the ways in which they act, create, and think futures

About the Authors

About the Author

Colorear por números: la tecnología digital y el arte de vivir

The digital relies on computation. Programming uses algorithms. Algorithms are sets of rules that solve problems in a finite number of steps. In this sense, the digital world is governed by quantities, numbers, fixed rules. The degree of freedom seems to be very limited. Artistic agency and creativity, on the other hand, rely on openness, freedom, and qualitative experiences. Such experiences are not only vital to artistic expression but also to everyday life. Technological life-worlds as they are represented through current technologies (e.g. smart homes or automated driving) and science fiction do not seem to accommodate such open structures. The philosophy of technology is divided: Many hold that to a large extent technology determines human cognition (such as Mark B.N. Hansen, Bernard Stiegler) and thus subordinate human cognition to mechanical organizations. Others take a different approach and reflect on the creative potential of new technologies (e.g. Erin Manning, Jaime del Val). This article discusses theories that address the human-machine relationship as complex structures that go beyond the dystopian idea of humans being transcended or incorporated by technology. Such approaches are central to the discussion on the future of human beings and cultural-political shaping of life-worlds. To understand how human-machine relationships can be framed as open and creative processes, I present epistemological accounts of embodied cognition, artistic examples of performance strategies with algorithmic set-ups, and finally embed these aspects within a broader picture of conceptualizing technology and human life as a continuum rather than standing in opposition or being determined by the other.Lo digital descansa en la computación. La programación utiliza algoritmos. Los algoritmos son el conjunto de reglas que resuelven problemas en un número finito de pasos. En este sentido, el mundo digital está regido por cantidades, números, reglas fijas. El grado de libertad parece muy limitado. Por el contrario, la actividad artística y la creatividad descansan en la apertura, la libertad y en experiencias cualitativas. Estas experiencias no solo son vitales para la expresión artística, sino para la vida cotidiana. Los mundos-vitales tecnológicos tal como se representan en tecnologías actuales (por ejemplo, en las casas inteligentes o en la conducción automática) o en la ciencia ficción no parecen dar cabida a estas estructuras abiertas. La filosofía de la tecnología está dividida: muchos sostienen que la tecnología determina en gran medida la cognición humana (como Mark B. N. Hansen, Bernard Stiegle) y, consiguientemente, subordina la cognición humana a las organizaciones maquinales. Otros adoptan una aproximación diferente y reflexionan sobre el potencial creativo de las nuevas tecnologías (Erin Mannig, Jaime del Val). Este artículo discute teorías que abordan la relación humano-máquina en tanto que estructuras complejas que van más allá de la visión distópica del ser humano siendo trascendido o incorporado por la tecnología. Estas aproximaciones son centrales para discutir el futuro del ser humano y la conformación político-cultural de los mundos vitales. Para entender cómo las relaciones humano-máquina pueden considerarse como procesos abiertos y creativos, presento narrativas de cognición corporalizada, ejemplos artísticos de estrategias de performance con sistemas algorítmicos, y finalmente engarzo estos aspectos en un panorama más amplio sobre la conceptualización de la tecnología y la vida humana como un continuo, en vez de una sostenida oposición o un estar determinado por el otro

Human/machine Learning: Becoming Responsible for Learning Cultures of Digital Technologies

This paper centrally asks for the ways in which ubiquitous, ever new digital technologies of 'our' everyday lives transform learning at the digital human-machine interface from the perspective of feminist science and technology studies. How to account for emerging forms of interwoven human and machine learning? Suggesting the term of learning cultures in approaching this question, the paper emphasizes an understanding of learning not as a proficiency of an entity embodying either natural or artificial intelligence, but rather as a culturally situated and materially enacted process. In so doing, the paper brings together recent impulses that suggest a re-conceptualization of learning, e.g. through the notion of "machine learners" (Mackenzie 2017) or that of "posthuman learning (Hasse 2018)". Reading these insights together, I will finally suggest an account of becoming responsible for learning cultures of digital technologies through a reconsidered notion of interwoven human/machine learning

Artificial perspectives: how science fiction grapples with the growing power of artificial intelligence

As Artificial Intelligence grows in its capabilities, Science Fiction works attempt to make sense of our understanding of humanity in relation to our developing understanding of AI. The paper examines this relationship across three perspectives. The colonial perspective — examined through a short film from the Animatrix collection — views humanity as the empire and AI as the colony. The apocalyptic perspective — examined through the works of Ray Kurzweil and Hans Moravec — embraces the oncoming singularity as a revelation. The prelapsarian perspective — seen through Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence — tries to prepare humanity for its possible downfall. These frameworks are then applied to Daniel Suarez’s Daemon, Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, and William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy to draw out assumptions regarding AI and its relationship to humanity within the works. The paper concludes with the assertion that while the future of AI may be uncertain, its importance cannot be ignored, and thus we must take stock of the various ways SF works attempt to make sense of it

Artificial intelligence in the design process

The book discusses how to include artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the early stages of the design process. Today designers need new tools capable of supporting them in dealing with the increasing project’s complexity and empowering their performances and capabilities. AI systems appear to be powerful means to enhance designers’ creativity. This assumption was tested in a workshop where sixteen participants collaborated with three AI systems throughout the creative phases of research, sketching, and color selection. Results show that designers can access a broader level of variance and inspiration while reducing the risk of fossilization by triggering lateral thinking through AI-generated data. Therefore, AI could significantly impact the creative phases of the design process if applied consciously. Being AI systems intelligent agents, the book treats the Human-AI collaboration as a collaboration between human agents, proposing a set of guidelines helpful to achieving an efficient partnership with the machine

The integrated sound, space and movement environment : The uses of analogue and digital technologies to correlate topographical and gestural movement with sound

This thesis investigates correlations between auditory parameters and parameters associated with movement in a sensitised space. The research examines those aspects of sound that form correspondences with movement, force or position of a body or bodies in a space sensitised by devices for acquiring gestural or topographical data. A wide range of digital technologies are scrutinised to establish what the most effective technologies are in order to achieve detailed and accurate information about movement in a given space, and the methods and procedures for analysis, transposition and synthesis into sound. The thesis describes pertinent work in the field from the last 20 years, the issues that have been raised in those works and issues raised by my work in the area. The thesis draws conclusions that point to further development of an integrated model of a space that is sensitised to movement, and responds in sound in such a way that it can be appreciated by performers and audiences. The artistic and research practices that are cited, are principally from the areas of danceand- technology, sound installation and alternative gestural controllers for musical applications

Artificial intelligence in the design process

The book discusses how to include artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the early stages of the design process. Today designers need new tools capable of supporting them in dealing with the increasing project’s complexity and empowering their performances and capabilities. AI systems appear to be powerful means to enhance designers’ creativity. This assumption was tested in a workshop where sixteen participants collaborated with three AI systems throughout the creative phases of research, sketching, and color selection. Results show that designers can access a broader level of variance and inspiration while reducing the risk of fossilization by triggering lateral thinking through AI-generated data. Therefore, AI could significantly impact the creative phases of the design process if applied consciously. Being AI systems intelligent agents, the book treats the Human-AI collaboration as a collaboration between human agents, proposing a set of guidelines helpful to achieving an efficient partnership with the machine