This module will lay the foundation for the course. Through some introductory lectures, you’ll build an understanding of the course theme — spooky technology — and the role it might play in critically examining the frictions we encounter with everyday intelligences. Through discussions, in-class activities and mini-assignments, we’ll introduce ourselves and learn a little about the shared interests in our classroom community, as well as open questions, challenges, and assumptions and find opportunities for investigation.
In this investigation, we’ll think about how many aspects of everyday technologies are hidden from plain sight: from their operation, to their infrastructures and their effects. We’ll examine how the complexity of current systems defy explainability and lead to breakdowns in interpretability. We examine how people navigate these frictions and how they might provide an opportunity to critically respond through technology. Using this footing, we’ll explore how deliberate designed artifacts (technologies, renderings, etc) might allow us to create encounters that could be difficult to explain or appear otherworldly.
This investigation is designed to surface some early stage ideas of what we’ll respond to throughout the rest of this course, give you an opportunity to showcase existing skills for making and designing technological artefacts, and get familiar with how spookiness can potentially be explored with new forms of ubiquitous, physical and tangible computing. As part of this exercise, you will:
Develop your understanding of theory, concepts and ideas relating to the supernatural or haunted.
Investigate existing technologies, creative projects, critical designs which can, could and are exploring explainability in complex systems
Identify issues with the complexity and scale of everyday systems and connected technologies.
Speculate on potential approaches to creating unexplainable and otherworldly experiences from the practical to the outlandish (strongly encouraged);
Explore the broader considerations, issues and requirements in building spooky technologies (social, cultural, personal, implications etc.)
Introduce your own skillsets, perspective and interests within the context of this course through a creative exercise
Learn and understand how your skills and interests, as well as those from other students, might contribute to an interdisciplinary investigation.
To learn about the wide range of topics in spooky technology; we’re going to learn from each other. First, you’ll share a case study in the space and report back. This will help you build familiarity and give us as a group a catalog we can draw from in our explorations. Second, you’ll creatively examine a topic of interest to you and experiment with a critically informed, perhaps even spooky approach, by rapidly preparing a designed artifact.
Specificially, this module will formally introduce themes surrounding ‘That Which is Hidden’ and the intersection of ubiquituous computing and explainability. With this groundwork set and in subsequent modules, we’ll tour additional cases and examples from the book, be joined by guest lecturers to discuss topics, learn to prototype electronic objects, and examine the ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design through critical making.
| Date | Activities |
|---|---|
| Tues, Jan 18 | Introduction to the course and concepts Introduction to Spooky Technology |
| Thurs, Jan 20 | Course Logistics. Introductions from Students through Examples. |
| Due Date | Deliverable | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Thur, Jan 19 | Case | Uncover an case that explores what’s spooky about technology today?. |
| Tues, Jan 24 | Exploration | Creative experiment on That Which Is Hidden. In not more than 2 hours, produce a designed artifact that reflects this theme. |
Building on the ideas in the intro lecture, uncover another example of an unexplainable aspects of technology: an encounter, experience or phenomenon of technology that is hard to explain and creates an unsettling effect. This could include unintended effects, glitches, hacks, hoaxes, manipulations or even intentional designs that subvert understanding. Read the full description.
That which is hidden. This invites you to playfully (and rapidly) explore what is hidden about systems and everyday intelligences with a quickly assembled creative composition Alternatively, you might also speculate on how you could make (an aspect of) a system that is hidden visible, tangible, perceivable, or discussable. (2 hours max) Read the full brief.
Note: the goal of this exercise will be introduce yourself to the other students in the course not to have a perfect, high fidelity or well realized outcome.
Review For Class
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| Thursday, Jan 19 | Excerpts from Spooky Technology. Essay: ‘Introduction’ |
Below is a list of additional online material that relates to the module and provides a starting point for your explorations. This is by no means exhaustive i.e. you should read/research beyond it.
Google Maps Hacks - Simon Weckert (2020)
Artist talk (skip to 9:30min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXzjYZxcQA
Pierce, J., & DiSalvo, C. (2017, June). Dark Clouds, Io&#!+, and [Crystal Ball Emoji] Projecting Network Anxieties with Alternative Design Metaphors. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 1383-1393).
Ambiguity as a resource for design - Jacob Beaver, Steve Benford, William W. Gaver (2003)
Gaver, W. W., Beaver, J., & Benford, S. (2003, April). Ambiguity as a resource for design. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 233-240).
Animistic design: how to reimagine digital interaction between the human and the nonhuman - Betti Marenko, Philip Van Allen (2016)
More info at: http://bettimarenko.org/animism-and-design/
Marenko, B., & Van Allen, P. (2016). Animistic design: how to reimagine digital interaction between the human and the nonhuman. Digital Creativity, 27(1), 52-70.
IoT Data in the Home: Observing Entanglements and Drawing New Encounters - Audrey Desjardins, Cayla Key, Heidi R. Biggs, Jeremy E. Viny (2020)
Desjardins, A., Biggs, H. R., Key, C., & Viny, J. E. (2020, April). IoT data in the home: Observing entanglements and drawing new encounters. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).
New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future - James Bridle (2018)
Bridle, J. (2018). New dark age: Technology and the end of the future. Verso Books.
Enchanted Objects - David Rose (2014)
Rose, D. (2014). Enchanted objects: Design, human desire, and the Internet of things. Simon and Schuster.
Internet Daemons: Digital Communications Possessed - Fenwick McKelvey (2018)
McKelvey, F. (2018). Internet daemons: Digital communications possessed. U of Minnesota Press.
Poetic Computation: Reader - Taeyoon Choi
Techgnosis: myth, magic & mysticism in the age of information - Erik Davis (2015)
Davis, E. (2015). Techgnosis: myth, magic & mysticism in the age of information. North Atlantic Books.
Haunted media: Electronic presence from telegraphy to television - Jeffrey Sconce (2000)
Sconce, J. (2000). Haunted media: Electronic presence from telegraphy to television. Duke University Press.