13 research outputs found
Media ethnography
Contents
Editorial
Thematic Focus: Media Ethnography
Media Ethnography and Participation in Online Practices / David Waldecker, Kathrin Englert, Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer, Oliver Schmidtke
The Story is Everywhere. Dispersed Situations in a Literary Role Play Game / Wolfgang ReiĂmann
Co-operation and/as Participant Observation: Reflections on Ethnographic Fieldwork in Morocco / Simon Holdermann
Ethnomethodological Media Ethnography: Exploring Everyday Digital Practices in Families with Young Children / Clemens Eisenmann, Jan Peter, Erik Wittbusch
Cooperation and Difference. Camera Ethnography in the Research Project âEarly Childhood and Smartphoneâ / Bina E. Mohn, Pip Hare, Astrid Vogelpohl, Jutta Wiesemann
Reports
Coordinations, or Computing is Work / Sebastian GieĂman
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Inventing Intelligence: On the History of Complex Information Processing and Artificial Intelligence in the United States in the Mid-Twentieth Century
In the mid-1950s, researchers in the United States melded formal theories of problem solving and intelligence with another powerful new tool for control: the electronic digital computer. Several branches of western mathematical science emerged from this nexus, including computer science (1960sâ), data science (1990sâ) and artificial intelligence (AI). This thesis offers an account of the origins and politics of AI in the mid-twentieth century United States, which focuses on its imbrications in systems of societal control. In an effort to denaturalize the power relations upon which the field came into being, I situate AIâs canonical origin story in relation to the structural and intellectual priorities of the U.S. military and American industry during the Cold War, circa 1952 to 1961.
This thesis offers a detailed and comparative account of the early careers, research interests, and key outputs of four researchers often credited with laying the foundations for AI and machine learningâHerbert A. Simon, Frank Rosenblatt, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky. It chronicles the distinct ways in which each sought to formalise and simulate human mental behaviour using digital electronic computers. Rather than assess their contributions as discontinuous with what came before, as in mythologies of AI's genesis, I establish continuities with, and borrowings from, management science and operations research (Simon), Hayekian economics and instrumentalist statistics (Rosenblatt), automatic coding techniques and pedagogy (McCarthy), and cybernetics (Minsky), along with the broadscale mobilization of Cold War-era civilian-led military science generally.
I assess how Minskyâs 1961 paper 'Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence' simultaneously consolidated and obscured these entanglements as it set in motion an initial research agenda for AI in the following two decades. I argue that mind-computer metaphors, and research in complex information processing generally, played an important role in normalizing the small- and large-scale structuring of social behaviour using mathematics in the United States from the second half of the twentieth century onward
History of Computer Art
A large text presents the history of Computer Art. The history of the artistic uses of computers and computing processes is reconstructed from its beginnings in the fifties to its present state. It points out hypertextual, modular and generative modes to use computing processes in Computer Art and features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, video tools, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, pervasive games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than is usual in such histories. From October 2011 to December 2012 the chapters have been published successively in German (The English translation started in August 2013 and was completed in June 2014)
History of Computer Art
The development of the use of computers and software in art from the Fifties to the present is explained. As general aspects of the history of computer art an interface model and three dominant modes to use computational processes (generative, modular, hypertextual) are presented. The "History of Computer Art" features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than usual in such histories. The German version was completed in December 2012. The last chapter of the English translation was published in June 2014. First update: September 2015
History of Computer Art
Die Entwicklung von Computer und Software von den fĂŒnfziger Jahren bis heute wird vorgestellt. Als Leitkriterien der Geschichte der Computerkunst werden ein Interface-Modell und drei Arten, Rechenprozesse einzusetzen (generativ, modular, hyptertextuell), vorgeschlagen. Die "Geschichte der Computerkunst"/"History of Computer Art" erörtert Beispiele aus frĂŒhen Entwicklungsphasen von Kunstformen wie Kybernetische Skulpturen, Computergraphik und -animation (einschlieĂlich Musikvideos und Demos), Videokunst und Computerspielen, reaktive Installationen, Virtuelle RealitĂ€t, EvolutionĂ€re Kunst und Netzkunst. Die Funktionen der ausgewĂ€hlten Werke werden detaillierter vorgestellt als dies in vergleichbaren Geschichten ĂŒblich ist. Die deutsche Version wurde bis Dezember 2012 kapitelweise in IASLonline Lektionen/Lessons in Net Art publiziert. Das letzte Kapitel der englischen Version wurde Juni 2014 veröffentlicht. Im September 2015 wurde ein erstes Update eingestellt
History of Computer Art, Second Edition
The development of the use of computers and software in art from the Fifties to the present is explained. As general aspects of the history of computer art an interface model and three dominant modes to use computational processes (generative, modular, hypertextual) are presented. The "History of Computer Art" features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than usual in such histories. The second edition for the Book on Demand (Lulu Press, 2020) includes an update of chapter II.1.1 (first edition 2014)
Re/constructing Computing Experiences. From "punch girls" in the 1940s to "computer boys" in the 1980s.
Re/constructing computing experiences from âpunch girlsâ to âcomputer boysâ traces the life cycle of five computing devices between the 1940s and the 1980s, each representing a key development in the history of computing. The experimental media archaeology framework of Nutzerperspektiven critically evaluates the type of user sources re/construct. The objectâs life cycle traces phases of design, production, sale, installation, application and use, and decommission or re-use. The lens of intersectionality with a focus on gender facilitates (visual) discourse analysis of advertisements to expose stereotypes. User experiences differ because inequalities in computing have at times resulted in occupational segregation, and working conditions varied across case studies.
Computing experiences encompass the object, the environment, and application, and a user, serving as a structure for the case studies. The first case study discusses the accounting departments of Helena Rubinstein which used Remington Rand, and later Powers-Samas, punch card machinery since 1940. Miss Summerell led the Powers room in the London branch from 1955 onward. The second case study centers around a workflow Dr. E. Blatt created for the International Business Machines (IBM) System/360 announced in 1964 used in German clinical chemistry laboratories since 1969. The Digital Equipment Companyâs client applications slides form the basis of the next case study and showed several uses of the Programmable Data Processor or PDP-11 in aerospace and commercial aircraft between 1970 and 1980. The final chapter compares
two educational initiatives from the 1980s. By 1981 the BBC Microcomputer kickstarted the Computer Literacy project in the United Kingdom, first targeting adults but soon entering primary and secondary schools. Appleâs Kids Canât Wait initiative in the United States equally introduced many children to computing.
Methods from user experience (UX) design and experimental media archaeology supported the re/construction or reenactment of past human-computer interaction. As a study of material culture, the historical case studies were informed by museum objects paired with additional archival sources. The research added phases to the life cycle framework and paired a reflection on the provenance of material objects with a focus on human actors. The case studies in turn demonstrated how sources limited the type of user and computing experiences historians can re/construct
Towards Our Common Digital Future. Flagship Report.
In the report âTowards Our Common Digital Futureâ, the WBGU makes it clear that sustainability strategies and concepts need to be fundamentally further developed in the age of digitalization. Only if digital change and the Transformation towards Sustainability are synchronized can we succeed in advancing climate and Earth-system protection and in making social progress in human development. Without formative political action, digital change will further accelerate resource and energy consumption, and exacerbate damage to the environment and the climate. It is therefore an urgent political task to create the conditions needed to place digitalization at the service of sustainable development