
toying with the singularity
My chapter on the design of playful AI and robotics – and the relationships between the material, the technical and the imaginary – is in The Internet of Toys: practices, affordances and the political economy of children’s smart play, edited by Giovanna Mascheroni and Donell Holloway (Palgrave 2019). Titled ‘Toying with the singularity: AI, automata and […] 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…