What do we call who we design for? The 'human' is often posed as an inclusive alternative to 'user'. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple - according to philosophy, history and psychology.
SpeakAIR Online Residency 2021 March 22, 2021, 9:03 a.m.
The digitization of our world has accelerated faster than ever with the pandemic. We look at ourselves in the reflection on a computer screen and tirelessly wonder who/what we are becoming. Each day is the moment which N. Katherine Hayles defined as “a critical juncture when interventions might be made to keep disembodiment from being rewritten, once again into the prevailing concept of subjectivity.” While the fear of the posthuman world reemerges, others may see this moment as an opportunity to revisit and rethink problematic practices rooted within the history of humanism.
In the age of New Media, how can we use technology to debunk the myth of universal human nature? How can one become a xeno – a foreign entity that constructs its own reality by rejecting universality and installing an updated reimagined-self?