RCEH Public Lecture Series - Clara Mancini: Animal-Computer Interaction: Animals as Co-Designers of Multispecies Technologically Supported Ecosystems

From laboratories to open fields, from farms to cities, animals have interacted with technology for nearly a century, usually as cogs within scientific and economic production apparatuses. The emerging field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) aims to change the focus of animal-machine interactions by recognizing animals as primary stakeholders, users and co-designers in these interactions, and by placing them at the centre of the design process. Introducing some of the projects that Clara’s colleagues and she have been working on at The Open University’s Animal-Computer Interaction Laboratory (ACI Lab), Clara will discuss the need for and the benefits of such a shift, as well as the design, methodological and ethical implications of animal-centred design. Throughout her presentation, Clara will endeavor to demonstrate ACI’s potential to reconfigure human-animal relations towards the development of more sustainable ecosystems.