Parutions récentes

Dans notre monde envahi par les technologies et leur recherche frénétique de l’efficacité, l’art pourrait apparaître comme une oasis vouée à la contemplation et à la méditation. Il n’en est pourtant rien. L’art de notre temps emprunte à l’industrie ses objets et ses matériaux, peuple ses expositions d’écrans, et rêve de cyborgs et de réseaux.

Dans ce livre prophétique, le grand penseur de la technique Jacques Ellul montre comment plasticiens, écrivains et musiciens ont succombé aux forces qui écrasent le monde. Certains, subjugués dès le début du XXe siècle par la technoscience, adoptent ses outils et ses procédures, se condamnant ainsi à la froideur, à l’absurdité ou à l’abstraction. D’autres – ou parfois les mêmes –, se voulant contestataires, accumulent les représentations du désastre ou les signes de la subversion, sans jamais pour autant saisir la racine du mal : le règne de la Technique.

Pour masquer sa vacuité, l’art contemporain se pare d’un discours théorique sophistiqué et intimidant. Passant outre, Ellul incite les artistes à s’émanciper de leur fascination pour la technologie, afin de renouer avec la faculté, propre à tout créateur authentique, d’allier le sens au sensible.

Technologies de l'information et de la communication (tic), migrations et interculturalité

Elaine Costa-Fernandez, Claire Scopsi, Raymonde Ferrandi, L’Harmattan, 2021

Cet ouvrage réunit 16 articles scientifiques qui interrogent le rôle des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC) dans la mobilisation des personnes et des institutions en situation de migration ou de contact de cultures. Il est question, tout d'abord, des répercussions cliniques et identitaires de ces symboles hégémoniques de la contemporanéité, puis de leur rôle dans la visibilité des migrants-réfugiés, la web-diaspora et les réseaux sociaux virtuels servant de médiation interculturelle aux migrants, et, pour finir, des enjeux éthiques, conceptuels et méthodologiques liés aux TIC dans une perspective transdisciplinaire et interculturelle.

Sociologie du numérique au travail

Marie Benedetto-Meyer, Anca Boboc, Armand Collin, 2021

Comment évolue le travail aujourd’hui à l’heure du numérique ? Les espaces et les temps de travail se recomposent-ils ? Les salariés sont-ils plus autonomes grâce aux outils numériques ? Comment évoluent le rôle des managers et les modes d’organisation du travail ? Les sujets d’interrogations ne manquent pas concernant les mutations du travail en lien avec la diffusion des outils numériques, qu’il s’agisse de comprendre les transformations de l’activité des cadres, les mutations de certains métiers (comme ceux, par exemple, de la vente, du secrétariat ou de la formation), ou de certaines fonctions comme la GRH, le marketing ou le travail de conception en bureau d’étude. A travers des données récentes, l'ouvrage montre l’ambivalence des effets du numérique sur les organisations et les tensions qu’elle génère en matière de travail, entre autonomie et contrôle, nouveaux collectifs et isolement, injonction à collaborer et responsabilisation individuelle.

Arts de la scène et humanités numériques
Des traces aux données

Clarisse Bardiot, Iste, 2021

Les traces numériques, qu’elles soient numérisées (programmes, carnets de notes, dessins, etc.) ou nativement numériques (mails, sites internet, captations vidéo, etc.), constituent un défi majeur pour la mémoire des éphémères arts de la scène. Le numérique transforme les traces en données et ce faisant les ouvre à la manipulation. Ce changement de paradigme appelle à un renouvellement des méthodologies pour écrire l’histoire du théâtre aujourd’hui, analyser les œuvres et leur processus de création, ainsi que pour préserver les spectacles.

Au croisement des études théâtrales, de l’histoire et des humanités numériques, de la conservation et de l’archivistique, ces méthodologies permettent de prendre en compte ce qui est généralement écarté : à savoir les traces numériques, jugées trop complexes, trop nombreuses, trop fragiles, à l’authenticité douteuse, etc.

Avec pour fil conducteur l’analyse des traces numériques de Merce Cunningham, et au travers de nombreux autres exemples, cet ouvrage s’adresse autant aux chercheurs et aux archivistes qu’aux artistes et aux institutions culturelles.

Imagination + Technology

Phil Turner, Springer, 2021

Imagination is highly valued and sought-after, yet elusive and ill-defined. Definitions range from narrowly cognitive accounts to those which endow imagination with world-making powers. Imagination underpins our ability to speculate about the future and to re-experience the past. The everyday functioning of society relies on being able to imagine the perspectives of others ; and our sense of who we are depends on the stories our imaginations create. Our soaring imaginations have taken us to the moon and allowed Einstein to race a light beam. Unsurprisingly, imagination underlies every aspect of human-computer interaction, from the earliest conceptual sketches, through the realistic possibilities portrayed variously in well-known tools as scenarios and storyboards, through to the wilder shores of design fictions. Yet, curiously, imagination is very rarely addressed directly in the design and HCI literature (and is wholly missing from virtual reality).

This book addresses this gap in our accounts of how we imagine, conceptualise, design and use digital technologies. Drawing on many years of practical and academic experience in human computer-interaction, together with a wide range of material from psychology, design, cognitive science and HCI, seasoned with a little philosophy and anthropology, Imagination + Technology first considers imagination itself and the principal farthings of a new account. Later chapters discuss the role of imagination in the design, aesthetics, use and experience of digital technologies before the concluding chapter focusses on the provocative nature of imagination. The book will be stimulating reading for anyone working in the field of interactive technology and related areas, whether academics, students or practitioners.

Living with Robots
What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know

Ruth Aylett, Patricia A. Vargas, The MIT Press, 2021

The truth about robots: two experts look beyond the hype, offering a lively and accessible guide to what robots can (and can't) do.

The robots are coming, and they're going to take our jobs ! Or, on second thought, perhaps they will be our friends ! In case you haven't noticed, there's a lot of hype about robots ; some of it is scary and some of it utopian. In this book, two robotics experts look beyond the fearmongering and the cheerleading to offer an engaging, accessible guide to robots : what they can (and can't) do, how they work, and what we can reasonably expect their future capabilities to be.

Ruth Aylett and Patricia Vargas discuss the history of our fascination with robots—from chatbots and prosthetics to autonomous cars and robot swarms. They outline the basic capabilities of robots—movement, navigation, and grasping and touching—and explain how robots see, feel, hear, think and learn. They describe how robots can cooperate, in applications ranging from robot football to search and rescue, and consider robots as pets, butlers, and companions. Finally, they look at robots that raise ethical and social issues : killer robots, sexbots, and robots that might be gunning for your job. Living with Robots equips readers to look at robots concretely—as human-made artifacts rather than placeholders for our anxieties.

Find out : •Why robots can swim and fly but find it difficult to walk •Which robot features are inspired by animals and insects•Why we develop feelings for robots •Which human abilities are hard for robots emulate

The Internet of Things, Revised And Updated Edition

Samuel Greengard, The MIT Press, 2021

A guided tour of the rapidly evolving networked world of connected devices, objects, and people that is changing the way we live and work.

Since the publication of the original edition of this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved from a novelty (look ! my phone connects to my lamp !) to a mainstream technology framework that we rely on every day to accomplish many tasks. This revised and updated edition reports on the latest developments in this rapidly evolving networked world of connected devices, objects, and people that is changing the way we live and work.

Business and technology writer Samuel Greengard takes us on a guided tour of the IoT, describing smart lightbulbs, sensors in phones that trigger earthquake warnings, 3D headsets that connect users to business expos through completely immersive virtual reality environments, and more. He offers a clear explanation of the technology that builds and manages the IoT and examines the growing array of consumer devices now available, from smart door locks to augmented reality fitting rooms. Greengard also shows how the IoT is part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is transforming business through smart manufacturing, end-to-end supply chain visibility, integrated artificial intelligence, and much more. He considers risks associated with the IoT, including threats to free speech, growing inequality, and an increase in cybercrime. Finally, he takes a look at the future of a hyperconnected world and what it means to people and human interaction.

Redesigning AI

Daron Acemoglu, Boston Review / Forum, 2021

A look at how new technologies can be put to use in the creation of a more just society.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not likely to make humans redundant. Nor will it create superintelligence anytime soon. But it will make huge advances in the next two decades, revolutionizing medicine, entertainment, and transport, transforming jobs and markets, and vastly increasing the amount of information that governments and companies have about individuals.

AI for Good leads off with economist and best-selling author Daron Acemoglu, who argues that there are reasons to be concerned about these developments. AI research today pays too much attention to the technological hurdles ahead, without enough attention to its disruptive effects on the fabric of society : displacing workers while failing to create new opportunities for them and threatening to undermine democratic governance itself.

Yet the direction of AI development is not preordained. Acemoglu argues for AI's potential to create shared prosperity and bolster democratic freedoms. But directing it to that task will take great effort. It will require new funding and regulation, new norms and priorities for developers themselves, and regulations of new technologies and their applications.

At the intersection of technology and economic justice, this book brings together experts—economists, legal scholars, policy makers, and developers—to debate these challenges and consider what steps tech companies can do take to ensure the advancement of AI does not further diminish economic prospects of the most vulnerable groups of population.