Sam Kinsley

Sam Kinsley

BSc (Hons) MediaLab Arts (University of Plymouth), MSc Society & Space (University of Bristol)

Contact Details

  • Tel: 0117 331 7316
  • Email:
  • Web: http://www.samkinsley.com/

Background

As an undergraduate I studied at the at the University of Plymouth, in BSc (Hons) MediaLab Arts, which has since been renamed Digital Art & Technology, between 2000 and 2004. My interests whilst studying Digital Art were largely focussed on what, at the time, I considered to be the relationship between the physical environment and the broadening notion of the ‘digital virtual’ and how one might thereby question the performance of 'place'. To investigate this interest I began reading the work of geographers such as Martin Dodge, Stephen Graham, Rob Kitchin and Nigel Thrift and so I developed an interest in contemporary (human) geographical research in technology. Following some time as a web developer I was fortunate to secure funding for postgraduate study with the help of Dr. JD Dewsbury, which brought me to geography and the University of Bristol.

Research Interests

Geographies and politics of anticipation; theorising and studying futurity (especially in relation to technology); Science and Technology Studies; Non-Representational geographies; the place and space of Computer-Mediated Communications; and investigating the future oriented practices of ubiquitous computing.

Thesis

My proposed title is currently: Practising Tomorrows? Anticipating worlds of ubiquitous computing.

Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) research is characterized primarily by a concern with potential future computational worlds. This notion of research by future envisionment has been a feature of ubicomp discourse and reasoning since it earliest days… Such visions, however, are interesting not just for what they say about the future but also for what they say about the present. This seems to be particularly the case when it comes to normative social relationships.

Bell & Dourish 2007 "Yesterday's tomorrows: notes on ubiquitous computing’s dominant vision", Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 11: p. 133

Beyond the continued development of existing communications and computing technologies is the planning and (variously) attempted implementation of sensory and communications techniques in a much broader range of devices. Ubiquitous computing has come to signify the array of projects for the diffusion of information and communications technologies into everyday products and practices. With technological tomorrows seemingly brought into today, anticipated futures are lent presence and substance, which can influence broader technological ‘common sense’ understandings, policies and business plans. These clean and sharp visions of technological futures can differ from the messiness of plans and goals set in-practice during R&D. My PhD thesis examines how and in what ways anticipatory knowledges are practised in the envisioning and contesting of futures, as peculiar arrangements of people, places and things.

Teaching experience

I have acted as a teaching assitant for the first year Geographical Methods module (GEOG15040) from 2006-2009. During 2007/08 and 2008/09 I supported the practical assessment of the first year Human Geography module (GEOG15020). I have enjoyed facilitating first year Human Geography tutorials throughout the period 2006-09. In 2009 I was invited to give a guest seminar as a part of the Placing Knowledge and Performativity module of MSc Society and Space.

Publications

'Anticipating futures: engineering expectations of ubiquitous computing', International Science Grid This Week [online], 21st November 2007.

I currently have two papers in preparation:

  • Practising tomorrows? Envisioning worlds of ubiquitous computing
  • Representing ‘things to come’: the politics of anticipation and ubiquitous computing

and a working paper: Embracing entanglements - Problematising the cosmopolitics of mobile communications technologies.

Presentations

A short history of the future of computing presented in the School of Geographical Sciences Roberts Skills Workshop series.

Yesterday’s Tomorrows - Envisioning Ubiquitous Computing presented in the session: The promise and problematic of technology: (Re)thinking bodies, spaces and times session at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2008.

Laying claim to technological futures presented in the Governing Technologies(I) - Representation, participation and governance in the ‘digital age’ session of the AAG Annual Conference 2008, Boston.

Yesterday's Tomorrows - Emergent spatialities and the experimental development of ubiquitous computing , guest seminar for the 'Production of Space' module of BSc Digital Art and Technology at the University of Plymouth (February 2008).

Disciplinary edges and the Socio-technical presented at the Doing Theory workshop held in February in the School of Geographical Sciences.

Mobilising the socio-technical: the cultural politics of mobile communcations technologies presented at Wessex Postgraduate Meeting 2007 at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor

Conferences and Workshops

Convened:

Attended:

  • RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2008, London
  • AAG Annual Conference 2008, Boston
  • RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2007, London
  • Wessex Postgraduate Meeting 2007 at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor
  • Doing Theory (Workshop) at the University of Bristol
  • Mobilities, Technologies and Topologies Workshop at the Open University
  • Creativity: the Word, Concept and Practice (Workshop) at the University of Bristol