automation
If you take a cursory look around, you'll find robots programmed to perform human sports. From the RoboCup football tournament to promotional videos of industrial robot arms playing table tennis, why is the visual language of sport so important in promoting robotics?
Fordism has permeated the way not just industrial manufacturing, but broad aspects of society are managed. And it's not all conveyor belts. What values underlying Fordism shape the way we look at technology and labour today?
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, it’s The Five Dollar Day, by Stephen Meyer III.
technology
It's time to start dreaming again about technology with liberatory potential. The belief, that the outcomes of technological changes to society are inevitable needs to be challenged. Technology is not apolitical, and it's time to build technologies which mirror our values.
work
Many individuals, groups, and organizations valorize, normalize, and validate being too busy. Buying into the cult of busy, on both an individual and an organizational level, reinforces real problems. It's a systemic problem, but we can also try to subvert it and support each other.
design
Design for Dreaming showcases post-WWII conspicuous consumption at its most glamorous. What was Design for Dreaming, and how can we understand its relevance 70 years later?
bookpile
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays (though this time it's a Saturday) about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, it’s Imagination: A Manifesto, a call to action by Ruha Benjamin.
Critical technoscience, human readable
It’s far too easy to fall into the trap of reactivity, taking time to think about what isn’t good or desirable in the state of the world, without considering what would be desirable instead. For that reason, today I present to you, instead of an essay, a list of wants.
A long-running and only slightly imaginary side-project is a fictional design research company called Robeson and Morris. I like to say that Robeson and Morris was, in fact, the world’s first design research firm.
Quietly, we are all accumulating 4D digital doppelgängers, representations of ourselves in the data we leave behind when we have our actions measured and tracked. What's at stake, and how can we think about these traces?
Not so obvious will go on summer hiatus for four weeks. Before that, a quick recap of some highlights, full of fine links to click.
This is a follow up to my post earlier in the week, in which I break down Langdon Winner's classic article, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" Because it's an interesting side-track, but not quite as essential as other parts of the article, I skipped
The second in a periodic series called "Reading," today's text covers a seminal academic article you might like, but find long and dense. I break down Langdon Winner's 1980 article, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" and explain why it matters.
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow.
Computer vision is everywhere, but gets less public discussion than the other, louder forms of "AI" currently in vogue. Being aware of CV and its assumptions matters.
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, The Birth of Computer Vision by James E. Dobson.
It's something different this week: a very short essay about why there is no essay. In the context of the heat wave Europe has been baking through, I reflect very briefly and slightly personally on why things can't always be okay.
Research which centres the experiences of people who are under-represented is not new, but is increasingly important as power imbalances grow more stark. Participatory research is a good place to start.
“Do” is a new series on Fridays. Elsewhere in my Friday posts, I focus on ways of trying to stay creative and focused in a distracting world. “Do” is practical interventions for specific tasks. Today's “Do” is about my imaginary interlocutor, Jim.