Call for (Fictional) Abstracts
The Futures of Computing and Wisdom
A Design Fiction workshop in conjunction with the NordiCHI’18 conference, Oslo, Norway
Full-day workshop on Saturday September 29, 2018
https://futuresnordichi.wordpress.com
Submission deadline: August 10, 2018
There has been an increasing interest in discussing the consequences of the technologies we invent and study in HCI research, including non-technical dimensions (societal, ethical, normative) (Mankoff et al. 2013, Pargman et al. 2017). This is also apparent in the surge of interest in Design Fiction during the last 10 years (Bleecker 2009, Tanenbaum et al. 2013, Dunne and Raby 2013). Design Fictions have traditionally emphasised near-future developments, implications and consequences, but what about developments that lie one or several decades into the future? If we want to think about and discuss how computing will affect and change society decades from now, the focus cannot be on the technology itself but rather on other types of question.
This workshop will invite participants to a dialogue on the futures of computing and wisdom. Wisdom relates to the dominant paradigms of knowledge, and elucidates what might be considered responsible and wise, and why. Through collaborative imagining, we will draw attention to the consequences of the technologies we invent and study in HCI, including non-technical dimensions (societal, ethical, normative). Deploying methods from Design Fiction we will project and reflect on the future of wise computing for 2068. Extending from the near-future projects of Design Fiction, we will deploy fictional abstracts to examine how computing, through future and imagined technologies and research on HCI, AI, IoT, and related studies on Big Data and Smart Technologies, will create, question, and reinforce ways of knowing, doing and living.
The workshop aims to develop a cohort of perspectives on the futures of computing and/or wisdom and to critically reflect on the assumptions, methods, and tools for enabling (and disabling) such futures.
To apply to the workshop, attendees will submit a “fictional abstract” – an abstract from a research paper yet to be written. Guidelines on writing and submitting a fictional abstract can be found here. Prior to the workshop, we will share these fictive abstracts, and, through peer reflection, unpick critical tensions in the advancement of computing over the next decades. By focusing on an end goal (“wisdom”) instead of on particular technologies in the present (machine learning, IoT etc.), we open up for discussions of what future(s) we want computing to support, what needs to happen for us to “end up” in certain futures rather than others, and what needs to be done in the present and in the near future to maximize the potential for our work to contribute to the creation of desirable rather than undesirable futures.
Submission information:
You apply by submitting a fictional abstract of 250 words. For more information on the format and examples see: https://futuresnordichi.wordpress.com.
Please send your fictional abstract as a pdf document that also includes your contact information by email to pargman@kth.se AND elina@kth.se. Deadline for submissions: August 10, 2018
Submissions will be reviewed based on quality, originality, and their potential contribution to achieving workshop goals. We expect to include 15-25 participants. The fictional abstracts will be shared prior to the workshop and topics raised by participants’ abstracts will form the starting point for engaged discussions at the workshop. Abstracts will be short and discussion will be lively!
At least one author of a fictional abstract is expected to attend the workshop.
Organisers:
Daniel Pargman, Elina Eriksson, Rob Comber, Ben Kirman and Oliver Bates