Postphenomenology - III: The Boundaries of Humans and Technologies

Abstract

From Donna Haraway’s notion of the ‘cyborg,’ to Bruno Latour’s notion of the ‘hybrid,’ work in STS has attempted to approach the seeming inseparability of humans and technologies. An understanding of one requires addressing the other. We have come to realize that technologies fit better and worse into our conceptual frameworks. And some devices themselves challenge our conceptions of what technologies are, or where a user begins and ends. Technologies of religion, or technologies of the far-off future, or devices that look back and monitor the user, or technological practices that involve animals all problematize the traditional boundaries we draw between humans and objects in different ways. The postphenomenological perspective is useful for approaching these problem spots, and for providing analyses that illuminate their implications.

Postphenomenology is a school of thought bringing together insights into human experience of technology from American pragmatism, STS, and the classical phenomenological tradition. In this panel, Sabrina Hauser joins with Peter-Paul Verbeek to consider the case of assistance dogs, and how they complicate our conception of otherness. Andreas Melson Gregerson explores the experimental technological mediation involved in “night church” practices. Marie-Christine Nizzi looks into the mediation that occurs in our conceptions of future technologies. A paper by Bas de Boer considers the co-shaping of human subjectivity at issue in self-tracking technologies. And Roisin Lally sets the stage for a postphenomenological inquiry into feminist theories of technology

Chair

• Don Ihde, Stony Brook University

Individual Presentations

• Assistance Dogs and Technological Mediation: On Animals, Technologies, and the Boundaries of the Human - Sabrina Hauser, University of British Columbia & Umea University; Peter-Paul Verbeek, University of Twente

• Exploring the Technological Co-production of Atmospheres in the Liturgical Laboratory - Andreas Melson Gregersen, Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society

• Inventing the Future: The Straight Line We Never Walk Yet Always Walked - Marie-Christine Nizzi, Harvard Psychology Department

• Turning a Lifestyle into a Disease: Analyzing the Scientific Promotion of a Healthy Lifestyle - Bas de Boer, University of Twente (the Netherlands)

• The Ontology of Feminism (A Postphenomenological Study to Come Later) - Roisin Lally, Gonzaga University

Session Organizer

• Kirk Besmer, Gonzaga University