Call for Papers: “Behind the Scenes of Automation: Ghostly Care-Work, Maintenance, and Interference, 28.04.2023, Hamburg/Online, Deadline: 23.02.2023

Industry and media have long represented automation as a harbinger of development and convenience in different areas of life. What remains behind the scenes of these predictions and imaginaries of automation is the invisible human labor of global ghost workers caring for, maintaining, and repairing technologies. Invisible but irreplaceable, computation performed by humans in precarious conditions fills gaps that computer technologies lack skills and sensibility for. In this one-day hybrid workshop, we ask who the “ghosts” are in the machines.

The workshop will address the ghostly presence of humans and human labor in automation and its challenges to HCI research and design. Additionally, it aims to explore methods to collectively create a multidisciplinary map, offering a stage to ghostly care work, maintenance, and interferences.

We invite scholars and practitioners from various career stages and from different backgrounds. Read the full call here.

 

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

We welcome position papers (3-4 pages, max. 2,000 words) responding to the themes and questions of the workshop call (see call). Accepted papers will be shared among participants prior to the workshop. Please submit your paper and additional information here.

The deadline for submission is February 23, 2023.

 

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS

Yana Boeva (main contact), University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Arne Berger, Hochschule Anhalt, Koethen, Germany
Andreas Bischof, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
Olivia Doggett, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Hendrik Heuer, University of Bremen, Germany
Juliane Jarke, University of Graz, Austria
Pat Treusch, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Roger A. Søraa, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Jasmina Tacheva, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
Maja-Lee Voigt, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany