This talk will investigate the “street trial\u201d as a device for experimental inquiry into social issues raised by automated systems. I adopt a deliberately broad definition of what counts as an experiment, and discuss a range of different street trials involving so-called intelligent cars: a street test of a modified VW diesel car; the demonstration of a driverless pod on a public square in a middle-sized UK town; an artistic experiment in the streets of Amsterdam involving a remote-controlled miniature car. I will explore the capacity of social research to contribute to the creative and critical analysis and configuration of street experiments. In doing so, I will pay special attention to the role of interpretation, not only because \u2018achieving\u2019 a public or collective interpretation of the problems and promises of computerized vehicles is a crucial aspect of street trials, but also because I want to know whether the re-configuration of street trials into \u201cexperiments in interpretation\u201d is a good objective to pursue.<\/p>\n
Noortje Marres<\/a> is Associate Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies<\/a> at the University of Warwick. She studied philosophy and sociology of science and technology at the University of Amsterdam, and in 2012 published Material Participation: Technology, the Environment, Everyday Publics<\/em> (Palgrave). Her book, Digital Sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research<\/em> will be published by Polity this Spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This talk will investigate the “street trial\u201d as a device for experimental inquiry into social issues raised by automated systems. I adopt a deliberately broad definition of what counts as an experiment, and discuss a range of different street trials…<\/span><\/p>\n