[Petit Fours #393] On rethinking psychology, data visualization, and human–robot interaction
Hi, all! Without further ado, here’s what I’ve got for you today:
#1 For those of you social psychologically inclined, this free webinar on June 18 should be a treat: Challenging the Boundaries of Orthodox Psychology: A conversation between Michael Billig and Kenneth Gergen “Michael Billig and Kenneth Gergen have devoted their entire academic lives to rethink psychology; to understand that any perspective on psychological life is necessarily social, shaped by power relations and constituted through language. In this conversation they will reflect on the reasons that led them to undertake a real academic battle to push the discipline beyond its limits. They will share the obstacles they encountered along the way and reflect on the need to continue to develop a critical gaze in the future. Orthodox psychology has many mechanisms to silence critical voices. We will explore how they were overcome in the past and discuss how to continue to do so in the future.“
#2 Data by Design is a (book) project that invites us to engage with data visualization critically: “Data visualization is not a recent innovation. Even in the eighteenth century, activists and economists, as well as educators and politicians, were fully aware of the power of visualization to produce new knowledge. But who, more precisely, was wielding this power? On whose behalf? And for whose benefit? The answers to these questions are what this project explores. By retelling the history of data visualization alongside the histories of colonialism and slavery, we show how questions of ethics and justice have always been present—and continue to offer lessons to viewers and designers of data visualizations today.“
#3 We’ve recently gotten a little bit of seed money for developing new perspectives to human–robot interaction, so the literature review presented in this CSCW paper, by Stine S. Johansen and colleagues, arrived at an opportune moment: Characterising CSCW Research on Human-Robot Collaboration
#4 It’s that time of the year: Please share your recent favorite books with me, especially if those are fiction! While there’s a few more weeks to go, I’ve started scouting for holiday reading...
-A