Why we need to design technology for and with animals

In her inaugural lecture, Clara Mancini, Professor of Animal-Computer Interaction in the OU’s Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, will talk about her research journey in the field of Animal-Computer Interaction, shared with colleagues from across the world, to develop the art and science of designing technology for and with animals.

She will discuss how inviting animals to the design table could help us to create a more inclusive and equitable society for humans and animals alike, and to develop in ways that are more environmentally and ethically sustainable.

Abstract

For millennia, we have developed technology that has enabled us to control and shape the environment around us, and that has increasingly distanced us from other animals, by empowering us to displace, segregate, contain and exploit them to our advantage.

However, the power to prioritise human interests that technology has given us is having enormous impact, not only on trillions of individual animals, but also on the very ecosystems that support all life on Earth.

We need a radical rethink of how technology could support a sustainable development…we need to start thinking ‘outside the (human) box’.

Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) is a growing field of research and practice, which takes an animal-centered perspective on the study and design of interactive systems to improve animals’ lives and human-animal relations. This includes enabling animals to participate in the design process as legitimate stakeholders and contributors.

From tools facilitating the work of assistance dogs, to interactive environments enriching the daily experience of rescued tigers, to smart cities fostering multispecies cohabitation, Professor Mancini’s work focuses on using technology to bridge the gap between humans and other animals, and on developing ethical approaches to working for and with animals, within and beyond ACI.

In this lecture, Professor Mancini will make the case that ACI can not only deliver technological applications and research methods that improve animals’ lives and human-animal relations. It can also produce ways of thinking and practices that are more perceptive of, sensitive to and empathic towards other beings, helping us to meet the responsibility that arises from our ability to develop technology and from the power that technology gives us.

In brief, she will argue that ACI can provide us with an opportunity to help reconfigure multispecies relations for a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable world.

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