This workshop took place on January 20 2017 and focused on forms of cognitive
automation that inspire contemporary concern about a ‘rise of the robots’, anxiety
concerning the replacement of human labour by computational processes, algorithms
and machine learning. Methods and resources evaluated here data-led analysis of big data and automation anxiety as an historical topos.
Schedule for the day and abstracts:
| 9.00 | Tea / Coffee |
| 9.30 | Workshop Introduction |
| 10.00 | Round Table: Automation and Work
Karen Gregory (Edinburgh), ‘UBI: A Rubric for Analysis’ Matthew Willis (Oxford Internet Institute), ‘Human Labour and Automation in Healthcare’ Patrick Crogan (UWE Bristol), Phil D Hall (Elzware) and Rik Lander (UWE Bristol), ‘The Echoborg Media Art Project’ Chair: Rachel Thomson (Sussex) |
| 11.30 | Tea / Coffee |
| 11.50 | Round Table: Automation Now and Then
Caroline Bassett (Sussex), ‘The first time as argument: automation fever in the 1960s’ Ben Roberts (Sussex), ‘Automation, Utopia and Postcapitalism’ Chair: Sharon Webb (Sussex) |
| 12.50 | Lunch in MFM Social Space, Third Floor |
| 13.50 | Digital Methods Workshop: Sixties and Contemporary Automation Texts
Led by David Weir and Jack Pay (Text Analysis Group, Sussex) |
| 15.20 | Tea / Coffee |
| 15.40 | Round Table: Automation, Thought and Method
Gerald Moore (Durham), ‘Automations, Economic and Nervous’ Eric Meyer (Oxford Internet Institute), ‘The Algorithmic Academic’ Dominic Smith (Dundee), ‘Redirecting Automation Anxiety: Is Philosophy of Technology Deeply Biased and Complacent on Automation?’ Chair: Beatrice Fazi (Sussex) |
| 17.10 | Wrap Up / Drinks in the MFM Social Space |
| 17.50 | Performance: ‘Job Vacancy: Echoborg’ |
