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82
Secured and Sorted Mobilities: Examples from the Airport’, Surveillance & Society 1(4
, 2004
"... Surveillance is increasingly focused upon mobility. Be it in cities, shopping malls or outdoor 'public ' spaces, surveillance is now able to track and monitor peoples movements. In recent years the most diverse forms of surveillance have been found at airports, yet paradoxically these spaces remain ..."
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Surveillance is increasingly focused upon mobility. Be it in cities, shopping malls or outdoor 'public ' spaces, surveillance is now able to track and monitor peoples movements. In recent years the most diverse forms of surveillance have been found at airports, yet paradoxically these spaces remain largely invisible within surveillance studies literature. This paper discusses a taxonomy of surveillance at the airport where several scales of mobility intersect – the global movements of international travel to local scale terminal activity. These are put under surveillance by techniques such as the passport and modern CCTV technologies. This paper illustrates the surveillant sorting that is perhaps most illustrative of airport surveillance, where airports can be seen to act as filters (Lyon, 2003) to the mobilities that pass through them. Using an Actor Network Theory (ANT) approach, trends to monitor the 'means of terrorism ' are discussed in regard to the monitoring of objects and actors. The paper continues to critique the way by which we tend to focus chiefly upon the human subject of surveillance, often disregarding the surveillance of non-human actors.
Machine Intelligence
"... Under certain conditions, we appear willing to see and interact with computing machines as though they exhibited intelligence, at least an intelligence of sorts. Using examples from AI and robotics research, as well as a selection of relevant art installations and anthropological fieldwork, this pap ..."
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Under certain conditions, we appear willing to see and interact with computing machines as though they exhibited intelligence, at least an intelligence of sorts. Using examples from AI and robotics research, as well as a selection of relevant art installations and anthropological fieldwork, this paper reflects on some of our interactions with the kinds of machines we seem ready to treat as intelligent. Broadly, it is suggested that ordinary, everyday ideas of intelligence are not fixed, but rather actively seen and enacted in the world. As such, intelligence does not just belong to the province of the human mind, but can emerge in quite different, unexpected forms in things. It is proposed this opens up a new set of possibilities for design and HCI; examining the ways intelligence is seen and enacted gives rise to a very different way of thinking about the intersection between human and machine, and thus promotes some radically new types of interactions with computing machines. Author Keywords Intelligence, intelligent machines.
WorldWideWhale.Globalisation/Dialogue of Cultures?
"... Abstract This article questions the assumption that globalisation has fostered cultural dialogue. In order to understand how globalisation has specifically impacted the sphere of the cultural, it starts by examining the way cultural practises are transformed in its wake. Does globalisation yield new ..."
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Abstract This article questions the assumption that globalisation has fostered cultural dialogue. In order to understand how globalisation has specifically impacted the sphere of the cultural, it starts by examining the way cultural practises are transformed in its wake. Does globalisation yield new, global forms of culture? To address this conundrum, this article takes the example of a cultural movement that has sought to project itself on a global scale, the anti-whaling culture, exploring both its origins and the distinctive cultural forms it has constituted. It then raises anew the question of dialogue: what of the dialogue between this global anti-whaling movement and local cultures where whaling still occurs? And how does such ‘global culture ’ negotiate with demands for cultural diversity? The advent of interactive technologies has opened up a world of possibilities for communication. As the Internet came to replace television, the message could begin to flow both ways. This effectively offered the promise of an infinitely multiplied potential for dialogue. The integration of various modes of communication into an interactive network has been hailed as a cultural revolution on a
Reconciling social constructivism and realism
- in GIS, ACME
, 2002
"... Abstract An epistemological and discursive divide separates critics of GIS and its researchers. An assumption exists among many users and developers of GIS that the technology models reality and can thus be used to predict and explain spatial processes. This realist position is not sanctioned by soc ..."
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Abstract An epistemological and discursive divide separates critics of GIS and its researchers. An assumption exists among many users and developers of GIS that the technology models reality and can thus be used to predict and explain spatial processes. This realist position is not sanctioned by social science critics of GIS who have focused efforts on illustrating the social effects of technology as well as social influences on its development. In this paper, I attempt to mediate these positions by arguing that GIS is shaped by social parameters, but that this does not necessarily negate its value in modelling spatial processes. Emphasis exclusively on either realist results or social influences in GIS deny evidence of their reciprocal effect. GIS and other technologies are shaped by social factors, but these are not the sole influences and don’t necessarily compromise the predictive value of GIS. A more constructive exercise is to “map ” points of social influence in order to demonstrate points where future negotiation can take place. Three examples of social influence are analyzed: (i) model building; (ii) algorithmic solutions for line intersection; and (iii) generalization research. These examples provide a preliminary blueprint for detecting social effects on the technology, a map that can be used by both developers and critics for reconstructing GIS. Moreover, the blueprint provides an epistemological basis for collaboration between geographers concerned with social influences in GIS as well as those engaged in its technical development.
A-life, Organism and Body: the semiotics of emergent levels
"... This paper comments upon some of the open problems in artificial life (cf. Bedeau et al 2000) from the perspective of a philosophy of biology tradition called qualitative organicism, and more specifically the emerging field of biosemiotics, the study of life processes as sign processes. Semiotics, i ..."
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This paper comments upon some of the open problems in artificial life (cf. Bedeau et al 2000) from the perspective of a philosophy of biology tradition called qualitative organicism, and more specifically the emerging field of biosemiotics, the study of life processes as sign processes. Semiotics, in the sense of the pragmaticist philosopher and scientist Charles S. Peirce, is the general study of signs, and biosemiotics attempts to provide a new ground for understanding the nature of molecular information processing and sign processes at higher levels as well. Although we should not expect in Peirce to find any answers to the theoretical challenges and open questions posed by ‘Wet ’ Artificial Life, his semiotics (along with emergentist theories and cyborg studies) provide inspiration and conceptual tools to deal with the problems of life, mind, and information in the physical universe.
The Iatrogenic Effects of Environmental Management: Servicing a Needy Nature?
, 1998
"... this paper, is usually associated with medical terminology. It refers to illness that is produced through medical examination or treatment. Ivan Illich and John McKnight have extended its use to include all service interventions, such as social services, educational systems and the criminal justice ..."
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this paper, is usually associated with medical terminology. It refers to illness that is produced through medical examination or treatment. Ivan Illich and John McKnight have extended its use to include all service interventions, such as social services, educational systems and the criminal justice system. Illich and McKnight claim that these helping systems actually disable individuals and their communities by building reliance on institutions and their associated experts and managers and that they thrive, therefore, on need rather than capacities. John McKnight has written about the iatrogenic effects which social services delivered by modern welfare states, and increasingly the private sector, have on targeted communities. He has commented that the helping professionals delivering these services are disabling rather than helping and that this outcome ensues due to the delivery of counterfeit care in the form of services aimed at specific needs
The anatomy of a surgical simulation: The mutual articulation of bodies in and through the machine
- SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE
, 2005
"... Engineers, computer programmers, and surgeons have begun to develop virtual reality simulators designed to teach the physical aspects of surgical skills, especially the skills needed to perform minimally invasive procedures. The technologies incorporated in these simulations, including graphic model ..."
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Engineers, computer programmers, and surgeons have begun to develop virtual reality simulators designed to teach the physical aspects of surgical skills, especially the skills needed to perform minimally invasive procedures. The technologies incorporated in these simulations, including graphic modeling, haptic (tactile and kinesthetic) interface design, and haptic cognitive studies, reconstruct surgical knowledge that traditionally remains tacit, such as knowledge of surgeons’ movements and forces used on tissues. A surgeon’s physical experience becomes mathematized when programmers reconstruct it for computers. This paper describes how researchers construct ‘body objects’, representations of bodies and body parts that are engineered to inhabit computer programs. This paper argues that surgical learning occurs at the interface of bodies and instruments, through simultaneous sculpting of the surgical site and training of the surgeon’s body, a process I call mutual articulation.
Making Sense of Imbrication: Popular Technology and ‘Inside-Out’ Methodologies. Paper read at Participatory Design Conference, 2004, at
, 2004
"... We describe a model popular technology education program based on feminist and Freirian principles. Participatory design and research methodologies that position facilitators and participants as co-producers were the basis for a series of collective research projects, which we then analyze for their ..."
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We describe a model popular technology education program based on feminist and Freirian principles. Participatory design and research methodologies that position facilitators and participants as co-producers were the basis for a series of collective research projects, which we then analyze for their contribution to the field of participatory design. Finally, we suggest that the democratization of technological citizenship can be best extended not through narrowly construed “technology training ” programs but through “popular technology, ” an empowering and visionary combination of popular education and participatory research and design that emphasizes critical technological literacy. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.4.2 [Social Issues]: Technology literacy and social justice – computer literacy, collaborative design methodology, participatory design, digital equity.
Mapping women’s worlds: knowledge, power and the bounds of
- GIS, Gender, Place and Culture
, 2002
"... Feminist geography and geographic information systems (GIS) have been two of the most dynamic research areas in geography over the past decade. They have opened up new methodologies and epistemologies, challenged fundamental research categories, and charted new areas of geographical inquiry. For the ..."
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Feminist geography and geographic information systems (GIS) have been two of the most dynamic research areas in geography over the past decade. They have opened up new methodologies and epistemologies, challenged fundamental research categories, and charted new areas of geographical inquiry. For the most part, however, these two � elds have remained stubbornly apart—unconnected, uncommunicative, and directing geography in divergent directions. This article, like the others in this collection, explores the connections between feminist geography and GIS, identifying how each can enrich and inform the other. The discussion re � ects my background as a feminist with expertise in GIS and quantitative methodologies and several years ’ experience in using GIS in the health arena. To set the stage for the discussion, I begin with a brief ‘story ’ (case study) describing the role of GIS in women’s activism concerning breast cancer in Long Island, New York. Subsequent sections review the key elements of feminist and GIS epistemologies and then discuss the challenges of integrating the re � exive methodologies of feminism with the more static, layer-based approaches of GIS. Key issues of knowledge, context and power are examined.

