Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 11:31:19 -0500
From: Satomi Sugiyama <[log in to unmask]>
[...]
ANNOUNCEMENT
Machines that become us:
Perspectives on how people incorporate
new communication technology into their lives
International Conference
Sponsored by the Department of Communication, SCILS
Rutgers University
Held at the
University Inn & Conference Center (Douglass Campus)
New Brunswick, NJ USA
April 18-19, 2001
The Rutgers University Department of Communication is holding an
international conference to which the public is cordially invited.
The April 18-19, 2001 conference will explore ways that emerging
personal communication technologies--which range from the Internet to
the mobile phone and beyond--are being integrated into people's lives
and lifestyles, including their clothes and homes. More than 20
internationally recognized experts will be discussing the situation
from a variety of perspectives. Audience members will have many
opportunities to raise issues and interact with panel members.
Further information, including registration procedures and costs, may
be found at the conference website:
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~jimkatz/MachCon/MachCon-CFP&P.htm
Please join us for this unique international event. Early registration
is encouraged. As seating is limited, admittance "at the door" cannot
be guaranteed.
PERSPECTIVE AND CONFERENCE THEMES The experience of a stroll on
any street or campus is today different than a mere three years ago.
Mobile communication technologies are everywhere, and have changed
the social landscapes through which we travel. The postures of
pedestrians are different--stooped over to hold a handset to the ear.
People on cue for a bus are busy talking, but to unseen others via
mobile phone rather than to the person next to them. The sight of
two people walking together, each talking on a mobile phone to some
distant other, is becoming unremarkable. Mobile technologies are
affecting who we speak to, what we say to them, how we organize our
day and spend our time--in essence who we are.
Yet the mobile phone is but one of many new forms of proliferating
personal communication technology. They, along with the Internet,
PDAs and other merging and emerging technology, are appearing around
our homes, cars and workplaces. They are even beginning to "talk" to
each other as well as to us. They are increasingly integrated into
our daily routines, and even our clothing. Soon, too, they may be
part of our physical bodies.
This flood of intermingled personal communication gadgetry not
only absorbs and redirects our time and resources. It also raises
disturbing questions about the quality and direction of change in
the globalized information society. These questions have ranged from
the levels of individual psychology to social policy, and from the
operational to the existential. Thoughtful and concerned observers
have become deeply disturbed by the significance these devices have
assumed in many people's lives: what are we doing to ourselves and to
each other? What will become of us?
Since the late 1800s, social philosophers and inspired gadgeteers
have foreseen a distant future when robots would supplant human beings,
perhaps even by force. More than a hundred years later, sharp debate
continues as to whether humans as physical beings will even exist at
the dawn of the next millennium. As concerned scholars and citizens,
however, we need not wait decades for insight into the question of
the relationship and degree of co-existence between humans and machines.
Without apocalyptic struggle, indeed without even much in the way of
formal announcement, machines and humans are merging. Given that the
process is underway, empirical data can be gathered and phenomenological
insight can be garnered about this experience and its meaning.
Addressing these questions is a challenge that now confronts the
engineering, bio-medical, design and social scientific communities as
well as laypeople.
In response to these developments, the Department of Communication at
Rutgers University has been involved in a series of efforts to focus
intellectual attention on this issue from a variety of perspectives.
By drawing not only on the communication perspective, but also
on those of other fields -- such as engineering, design, cultural
studies, history, urban planning, architecture and art criticism
-- not only can new insights be derived, but also individual
investigations can be enhanced by considering concepts and tools
available from related fields.
These efforts have to date yielded some important results. One was a
workshop held at Rutgers in December 1999. This workshop investigated
the way mobile communication technology, and especially the mobile
phone, has affected social and interpersonal communication processes
in ten countries, including the US. The results of this conference
will be appearing in a book, published by Cambridge University Press
and edited by James E. Katz and Mark Aakhus, entitled "Perpetual
contact". (http://scils.rutgers.edu/~jimkatz/rutechworkshop.htm)
Another effort along these lines was a conference in Milan, Italy
in January 2001. This conference, held at the Triennale di Milano,
was entitled "Il corpo umano tra tecnologie, comunicazione e moda"
(The human body between technologies, communication and fashion). A
variety of organizations were involved, including the Comune di Milano
Assessorato Moda ed Eventi, Politecnico di Milano, and the Universita
Degli Studi di Trieste. The "Machines that become us" conference is
conjoined with this earlier event. As such it capitalizes upon some
of the issues raised at this earlier event. Doubtless, in its turn,
the "Machines that become us" event will help build a legacy upon
which yet other efforts can be based.
At this conference, we explore the multiple layers of meanings
of the personal communication technologies, including as function
and fashion. In terms of function, they are tools that extend our
abilities, and complement our limitations. As symbols of our taste
and values, they may also involve compliments to us, and certainly
communicate much of interest to others. Moreover, it seems they are
also becoming a part of us socially, psychologically and physically.
The conference purpose is to use a multi-pronged approach to gain
insight into the range of human experiences with personal communication
technologies and chart what unanticipated uses are being devised for
them. It seeks to foster understanding of what these increasingly
important devices are doing to us as individuals -- in terms of our
interior psychological experience of existence -- and as members of an
increasingly interconnected society.
The Department of Communication is grateful to the following
organizations, which have generously agreed to co-sponsor this event:
NEC USA C&C Research Laboratories
Design Workshop 1954
Johnson & Johnson
Vodaphone
Office of the Dean of SCILS, Rutgers University
Tentative Program
(All speakers, topics and arrangements subject to change)
Wednesday, April 18, 2001
(Registration)
1. Emerging technology
a. Burdea, Grigore--Virtual Reality Laboratory, Rutgers, USA
b. Goose, Stuart--Siemens Corporate Research, USA
c. Weinstein, Steve--NEC C&C Research Laboratory, USA
2. Sense-making: Perspectives on machines becoming us, and us becoming
machines
a. Aakhus, Mark--Rutgers U., USA
b. Fortunati, Leopoldina--University of Trieste, Italy
c. Haddon, Leslie--London School of Economics, UK
d. Licoppe, Christian--France Telecom Research, France
(Lunch)
3. Home: Integrating machines into domestic and public space
a. Carey, John--Greystone Associates, USA
b. Kommonen, Kari-Hans--University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland
c. Mante, Enid--KPN Research, The Netherlands
d. Meyer, Sibylle--BIS-Berlin, Germany
e. Townsend, Anthony--New York University, USA
4. Fashion: Integrating machines into the second skin
a. Danese, Elda--Instituto d'Arte de Venezia, Italy
b. Dominoni, Annalisa--Politechnico di Milano, Italy
c. Messina, Rietta--MOMI Moda Milano, Italy
5. Mobiles: Extending the social self into machines
a. Green, Nicola--Sussex University, UK
b. Johnsen, Truls-Erik--University of Oslo, Norway
c. Ling, Richard--Telenor, Norway
d. Rautiainen, Pirjo--University of Tampere, Finland
(Reception)
(Dinner)
Thursday, April 19, 2001
6. Internet I: The social self in North American public electronic networks
a. Aspden, Philip--National Academy of Sciences, USA
b. Brodeur, Marie--Statistics Canada, Canada
c. Rice, Ronald--Rutgers University, USA
7. Internet II: Cross-cultural comparisons of social integration
a. Kim, Shin Dong--Hallym University, Korea
b. Lorente, Santiago--Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
c. Skog, Berit--Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway
d. Vershinskaya, Olga--Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
(Lunch)
8. Body, machine and self-image: Cross-cultural comparisons
a. Caporael, Linnda--Rensalaer Polytechnic, USA
b. deGournay, Chantal--France Telecom Research, France
c. Grossi, Annamaria--Assessorato alla Moda e Grandi Eventi del Comune
di Milano, Italy
d. Stojanova, Valeria--Petar Karaminchev Ltd, Bulgaria
9. Disembodied self and the embodied machine: Avatars, virtual to F2F
meetings and social interaction
a. Beckers, John--Leiden University, The Netherlands
b. Marx, Gary T.--Professor Emeritus, MIT, USA
c. McDermott, Trish--Matchmaker.com, USA
10. Summary and Conclusion
(Adjourn)
Organizer contact information:
James E. Katz, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Communication
School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
4 Huntington Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1071 USA
Office, TAM, fax: 732.932.7168
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