Mistakology

Mistakology

Date: 
05.02.2006 16:30
Edition: 
2006
Format: 
Panel
Location: 
Studio

Every technology has its mistakes and accidents already built in. This insight is not new, but it is still consistently ignored in an approach to technology that demands it to be controllable and safe, functional and useful. Technical dysfunctionality is 'repressed' by modern society, in a Freudian sense. Functional discrepancies between people and machines are called 'human failures' even in cases in which the technology is making impossible demands on its human user. Machines and their mistakes are thus an inexhaustible source of humour and parody. Claus Plas (Bochum): DER FEHLER IN DER KYBERNETIK Pias speaks about the role of mistakes in Cybernetics, and about dysfunctionality as a source of technical and scientific progress.Norman White (Toronto): F/UTILITY In his artistic and theoretical works, Norman White concerns himself with the borders of the logic of machines. He speaks about the imperfections of technology.

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