Speaker: Lucy Suchman, Professor, Anthropology of Science and Technology & Co-Director, Centre for Science Studies, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University UK

Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 4:15-5:15p

Location: 135 Baker Lab

Abstract -

This talk considers the question of how agency, or the capacity for action, is currently configured at the human-computer interface, and how it might be otherwise. I explore the question in relation to three elements taken to be central to agency in the sciences of the artificial; embodiment, emotion and sociality. With some exemplary cases in view, I offer a critical consideration of the way in which these aspects of the human are conceptualized in the computing and cognitive sciences, and are realized in associated technological projects. This includes initiatives in robotics and artificial intelligence aimed at the replication of capabilities of mobility or navigation, of so called ‘affective computing’, and of social interaction. With that critique in mind, I turn to examples – from both mundane work settings and new media arts – that suggest different conceptualizations of agency at the interface between humans and machines. I conclude with some thoughts on the implications of these latter cases both for an anthropology of objects, and for projects that aim to configure human-machine relations in new and innovative ways.


Bio -

Lucy Suchman is Professor of Anthropology of Science and Technology in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University, and Co-Director of the Centre for Science Studies. She received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, and spent twenty years as a researcher at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center before taking up her present position. Her research has centered on the sociomaterial practices that make up technical systems, explored through critical studies and through experimental, interdisciplinary and participatory interventions in new technology design. Her publications include ‘Working Relations of Technology Production and Use’ (1999) In Mackenzie, D. and Wajcman, J. (Eds.) The Social Shaping of Technology, Second Edition. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, and Plans and Situated Actions: The problem of human-machine communication (Cambridge, 1987).

If you would like to meet with Lucy during her visit contact Anat Nidar-Levi.


For more information please contact Jeff Hancock.