Abstract:
In this presentation I will share recent work in Machine Therapy, including projects with domestic machines and machine voices. Machine Therapy is in response to the overwhelmingly pervasive effects of machines in everyday life. It is tangentially about the parapraxis of machine design -- what machines do and mean for people other than what we consciously designed them to do and be used for. Through the presentation I will illustrate some connections between the ways of knowing in recent practices of digital signal processing, machine learning, psycho-analysis, and performance art.

Bio:
Kelly Dobson grew up in a junkyard. From the age of four she was doing odd jobs such as smashing windows and hauling machine parts from one area of the yard to another. She had machine friends. As a teenager she began studies in medicine and art, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cornell University’s Department of Architecture, Art and Planning. Working in the realms of art, design, engineering, psychology and society, Kelly explores the relationships between people and machines, and has received a Master of Science degree from MIT’s Visual Studies Program and another from the MIT Media Lab. Currently, as a researcher and PhD candidate in the Computing Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab, she is developing a method of personal, societal, and psychoanalytical engagement termed Machine Therapy. In her current work Kelly combines research in digital signal processing and machine learning, technology and society studies, therapy, and art.