As I’m working on a cluster of ideas about robots, AI, automata and animals, here is an entry on Robot that I wrote for The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (2015). The word “robot” was coined by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek in 1921, in his play R.U.R. He took his inspiration for it from […]more…
we both know your yearnings
I know who I am, but who are we? Distributed subjectivity in the postindustrial machinic phylum. The card is delivered to me from a fairground fortune-telling machine in the collection of the SeaCity Museum in Southampton. Its message is printed on thick card and has the look of handwriting. It assumes an intimacy between us, […]more…
toying with the singularity
I’ve added a draft of ‘Toying with the singularity’ to the Publications page – a chapter for The Internet of Toys: practices, affordances and the political economy of children’s smart play, edited by Giovanna Mascheroni and Donell Holloway, out now with Palgrave. Below is from an early version of the introduction: Eight Year 5 children sit around […]more…
the semio-economics of Hyrule
The expansive world of The Legend of Zelda: the breath of the wild features a diegetic economic system. From time to time Link meets travelling merchants or visits shops in villages and can buy or sell food, plants, weaponry, minerals and so on, resources that are distributed across the world and foraged for or won […]more…
Ludic Economies I
With the special issue nearing publication, here’s a reminder of the original Ludic Economies: value & exchange in contemporary game cultures event. The site hosts all the presenters’ slide shows. Participants included: Dan Ashton; Patrick Crogan; Seth Giddings; Alison Harvey; Josh Jarret; Helen W Kennedy; Ashok Ranchhod; Vanissa Wanick.more…
distributed imagination
Distributed imagination: small steps to an ethology of mind and media This project will theorise the imagination in postdigital mediated environments. Imagination has at best been regarded with suspicion in critical studies of media communication and communion. Its Romantic and humanist legacy, and its associations with art and children, seem to push it aside as […]more…
robot phenomenology
From a fascinating and wide-ranging talk (2011, copied here from an old blog) at the Pervasive Media Studio by Prof. Chris Melhuish of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory… The focus was the challenge of making robots that can operate socially, i.e. in everyday settings with humans – e.g. in the domestic environment or in healthcare. I […]more…
small steps to an ethology of mind and media
Slides for my talk at the Media Theory in Transit symposium organised by Yigit Soncul and Jussi Parikka at Winchester School of Art, 24th November 2015.more…
robots are go
With Silas Adekunle of Reach Robotics I have just been awarded a REACT Prototype grant to research playful robotics. More as it develops, but here’s a bit of the application: Reach Robotics has designed an entertainment robot controlled by a smart phone game, palm-sized and personalisable. The aim of the project is to develop a […]more…
soft worlds
Extracts from a chapter from Gameworlds: virtual media & children’s everyday play: Soft Worldsmore…
at play in the flocking routine 2
From a draft version of a chapter for Michelle Henning’s forthcoming collection on Museum Media. Accompanying video is here. Occupying the final room of the centre, visitors entered the installation after walking through a range of natural history and ecological displays, from living animals in vitrines to interactive screens and videos. Visitors enter a […]more…
at play in the flocking routine
A few lo-res seconds of an interactive video installation at the Wildwalk science centre in Bristol (closed in 2007). The fish move and respond to players using ALife flocking routines (they are, in this sense, boids). It may not be clear from the video, but the digital water also responds to players,… From the draft […]more…
