(Dis)entangling Cognition, Meaning, Modeling, and Environments

 

The special issue of Cybernetics & Human Knowing entitled “(Dis)entangling Cognition, Meaning, Modeling, and Environments” has been published. 

The issue is guest edited by Alin Olteanu, Phillip H. Roth, and Gabriele Gramelsberger and includes many contributions from KHK c:o/re staff and fellows. 

It can be accessed online at the following address: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/chk/2025/00000031/f0020003;jsessionid=lsn22ngkdcas.x-ic-live-01

International Conference “Cultures of Research”

 

The international conference “Cultures of Research” takes stock of the first four years of the fellow program at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Rearch (c:o/re). During these years, more than fifty international fellows came to the KHK c:o/re to explore the transformation of research in its many facets. Topics such as the digitalization of science, the growing influence of AI on research practices, the organizational transformations in science, the “engineering of science”, and the historical as well as intercultural comparison of “varieties of science” have been widely discussed. The conference “Cultures of Research” will focus the discussions on these topics in various panels with current and alumni fellows as well as members of the scientific advisory board of the KHK c:o/re.

https://khk.rwth-aachen.de/event/international-conference-cultures-of-research/

Käte Hamburger Kolleg (c:o/re) RWTH Aachen University - Call for applications

Open Call for applications

The Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) is offering ten research fellowships for international scholars from the humanities, social sciences or STS as well as from natural, life and technical sciences for the academic year 2024/2025. The fellowships can start between June and October 2024. The Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) is an International Center for Advanced Studies at RWTH Aachen University funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Part of its mission is to offer a free space to its fellows to develop their research projects in a vibrant academic environment facilitating exchange of ideas for a timespan of up to 12 months.

The topic Cultures of Research is positioned where the fields of philosophy, sociology and history interface with natural sciences and engineering. The overall interest of the Center’s work falls on transformations of science and technology as addressed by notions of complexity, lifelikeness and emergence. We are particularly interested in the digitalization of research (simulation, artificial intelligence, machine learning) for the study of epistemic complex systems (e.g., climate change, energy revolution, biologization, sustainability), in participatory arrangements between science and society and in investigating histories and varieties of cultures of research. Our aim is to explore new cultures of (transdisciplinary) research, and, as such, to develop new theories and methodologies for investigating scientific transformations.

For the year 2024/2025 call we are particularly, but not exclusively interested in the topic of Expanded STS. By this topic we mean reflecting on the specific challenges that STS is facing to explore and analyze scientific transformations, and providing this field with specific methods. Further, we are interested in the topic of lifelikeness, a research object emerging at the interface of engineering, AI, life sciences and material sciences. With this in mind, we encourage applications with research proposals from:

• the humanities, social sciences, and STS that explore methods for addressing the diversity of scientific and technological transformations;
• natural, life and technical sciences which scrutinize complex life-like systems; and
• arts, art history, science journalism and scientific illustration to explore the mediation and representation of life-likeness in science and technology.

You can find the current call for applications for 2024/25 by following the link below.

The deadline for applications is December 31, 2023

https://khk.rwth-aachen.de/calls/

4th Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics, IACS4

Joffrey Becker, Virginie André and Alain Dutech

How do we make sense of a robot’s behavior? An experimental case study

4th Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics

June 15th 2022

Robots are known for the uncanny feelings they trig in humans. Though they are frequently thought by analogy with living bodies, their social presence is difficult to grasp. Their activity engages those who observe them in a sort of game which consists of both making hypothesis about their expected social qualities and also seeking to define their status. Roboticists, through their work on the cognition of human-robot interaction and social robotics have understood this well (Siciliano & Khatib, 2016). Based on the observation that human-machine interaction follows the rules of social interaction between humans (Reeves & Nass, 1996), their work leads to the design of robots which form, behavior and processes invite their users to recognize the human in them. However, despite their continuous efforts, human-robot interaction never appear as natural to us as a peer interaction would be. For instance, the status of 'person' that is inferred during an interaction with a robot is characterized by instability and uncertainty (Vidal, 2007). It is also subject to various transformations during the interaction itself (Becker, 2015). Moreover, objects that do not resemble the human body give rise to social-like interpretations regarding their actions or even their potential intentions (Heider & Simmel, 1940). How do we make sense of a robot's behavior? Using an example of human-robot interaction, we will see how difficult it is to interpret the behavior of a machine. Leaning on an interdisciplinary experiment crossing the field of anthropology, socio-linguistics and robotics, we will focus on the terms used by a group of human participants to describe and qualify the behavior of a robot that has been initially designed to resist anthropomorphic type of inferences. The aim of this experiment is not to assess the quality of the robot's behavior so that it could carry the same meaning for everyone in further experiments, but rather to see to what extent the various movements produced by this object generate shared interpretations or not. By studying the semantic spaces occupied by the words used to describe the movements of the machine, we will see that the meaning given to its activity is based on various known elements which also depend directly on the very experience of the participants. These elements go far beyond a simple recognition of a human character into the object. We will see that such an interaction, though obvious limitations, implies that the participants infer on the perceived movement by using a complex set of analogies.

Conference program: https://iacs4.signges.de

c:o/re Workshop: Interdisciplinary Research in Robotics and AI

Disabled Chair, 2014 - 2019, prototype #3, Samuel Bianchini with the collaboration of Didier Bouchon

"Invisible Man" Exhibition, curating by Murray Horne, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, April 2019. Photo: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

An artwork developed and prototyped as part of the research project “Behavioral Objects” of the Reflective Interaction Group of EnsadLab 

(laboratory of The École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs - PSL University).

 Joffrey Becker and Käte Hamburger Kolleg Aachen: Cultures of Research (c:o/re) 

RWTH Aachen University

c:o/re Workshop: Interdisciplinary Research in Robotics and AI

One-day workshop April 20 2022

To take part online, please register with

events[at]khk.rwth-aachen.de

This workshop addresses interaction design by focusing on the notion of Behavioral Objects. Based on robotics and artificial intelligence, these non-anthropomorphic, non-zoomorphic objects are endowed with capacities for expressive movement, action and reactions and are also able to elicit observers’ behavioral interpretations (intentional and emotional attributions). They are therefore of interest to many fields of research like social sciences, humanities, robotics, computer sciences, art and design. The workshop will address the interdisciplinary framework opened by Behavioral Objects and the experimental perspective that brings together and combines these disciplines.

Program:

12:00-02:00pm 

The Apprentices: Objects with Interacting Behaviours

Samuel Bianchini 

(Reflective Interaction Research Group/EndsadLab, 

École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, PSL University), 

Elena Tosi Brandi 

(Xdlab/Art Directions Nods, Orange)

 

Hugo Scurto 

(Inserm-Sorbonne Université and ISIR, CNRS Sorbonne-Université 

and Reflective Interaction Research Group)

The Appprentices is a design research project led by multidisciplinary teams from Orange Innovation and EnsadLab (the laboratory of the École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris). Following an experimental approach that combines human sciences (notably anthropology and cognitive sciences), robotics and computer sciences (machine learning) with digital creation and innovation, this project explores new relational modalities between humans and our robotic environments enhanced by artificial intelligence techniques. If our everyday objects might be empowered with abilities of movement and learning, action and reaction, and a behavioral dimension, how can we design new relationships with these robotic artefacts but also between them? 

This lunch talk will describe The Appprentices, an instrumental “dispositif” to experiment with such “behavioral objects”, focusing on an original dimension that allows movement and sound to be strongly paired: vibration, vibratory space as a system of communication and interaction. Specifically, the talk will detail the participatory design process that enabled practitioners and researchers from diverse disciplines to collaborate in the prototyping of the dispositif, in an attempt to entangle technical components of these robotic objects with concepts of agency, animacy, learning, and vibration.

05:00 – 07:00pm

Behavioral Objects, Agonistic Objects 

How and why to design art robotic objects fighting against and for their being conditions?

Samuel Bianchini 

(Reflective Interaction Research Group/EndsadLab, 

École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs, PSL University)

Created in an artistic context that also belongs to the wider field of robotics, “behavioral objects” are defined by their capacity to express a “personality” thanks to the quality of their movements and their actions and reactions, which are, in this case, regarded as “behaviors.” Non-figurative, these art objects have no need of being useful - their activity does not have a specific function or usage - and they have built-in energy sources that are, generally, not visible, making it impossible to attribute to a third party the energy directly required to make them move, the physical cause of their activity. 

If their expressive capacities can be provided through the ability to move and interact dynamically with the environment, what kind of interaction could we design to stimulate the attribution of behaviors and even personality? How to build an emotional and reflective relation with this robotics object through an aesthetic dimension in operation? 

Based on the presentation of several art projects developed in the framework of our Behavioral Objects research and creation project, we propose to consider the design of this objects through an agonistic approach. Even in operation, these objects are still in construction: in a kind of new homeostatic perspective, they are always seeking for their balance. They need to fight for that, against and for their being conditions. Exhibited such objects it is to exhibit this fight. It requires now to configure relations of forces, internal as with the environment. This new kind of settings as to consider aesthetic, symbolic and technical dimensions gathered in real-time operation. It raises the possibility of an agonistic design, a way to set conditions for a sensitive and reflective experience for objects and humans.

Workshop - Explainable AI and explanations in AI

Organized by Markus Pantsar & Frederik Stjernfelt

February 2nd, 2022

RWTH Aachen University, Theaterplatz 14, room 303 and online

One important challenge in machine learning is the “black box” problem, in which an artificial intelligence reaches a result without any humans being able to explain why. This problem is typically present in deep artificial neural networks, in which the hidden layers are impenetrable. To tackle this problem, researchers have introduced the no- tion of explainable AI (XAI), artificial intelligence the results of which can be understood by humans. The XAI position is usually characterised in terms of three properties: transparency, interpretability, and explainability. While the first two have standard def- initions, explainability is not understood in a uniform manner. What does explainability mean? What kind of AI is explainable? Can there be properly explainable machine learning systems? In this workshop, we discuss a variety of approaches to these topics in connection to fundamental questions in artificial intelligence. What are explanations in AI? What do AI systems explain and how? How does AI explanation relate to the topics of human understanding and intelligence?

Confirmed speakers are: Jobst Landgrebe (Cognotekt Köln), Markus Pantsar (University of Helsinki, c:o/re), Frederik Stjernfelt (Aalborg University Copenhagen, c:o/re), Gabriele Gramelsberger (c:o/re Aachen), Ana L. C. Bazzan (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, c:o/re Aachen), Joffrey Becker (Laboratoire d‘Anthropologie Sociale, c:o/re Aachen), Daniel Wenz (CSS Lab RWTH Aachen), and Andreas Kaminski (High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart).

Information and Program: https://khk.rwth-aachen.de/2022/01/27/2281/explainable-ai-explanations-in-ai/

Call for applications - Käte Hamburger Kolleg Aachen: Cultures of Research

10 Junior (postdoc) / Senior Fellowships starting in October 2022 for up to 12 months

Open call for applications

The Käte Hamburger Kolleg Aachen Cultures of Research (c:o/re) has openings for a total of 10 international fellows for the academic year 2022/2023, starting in October 2022. Eligible applicants are expected to come from the humanities, social sciences and STS as well as from natural, life and technical sciences. This International Center for Advanced Studies at RWTH Aachen University is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Part of its mission is to offer a free space to its fellows to develop their own research and to exchange ideas up to 12 months. 

The topic Cultures of Research is positioned where the fields of philosophy, sociology and history interface with natural science and technology. The overall focus of the Center’s work is on transformations of science and technology towards complexity, life-likeness and emergence. We are particularly interested in digitalization of research (simulation, artificial intelligence, machine learning) for studying complex systems (e.g. climate change, energy revolution, biologization, sustainability), in participatory arrangements between science and society and in investigating histories and varieties of cultures of research.

Our aim is to explore new cultures of (transdisciplinary) research, but also to develop new theories and methodologies for investigating the mentioned scientific transformations.

Against this backdrop we encourage applications by candidates:

• from the humanities, social sciences and STS to explore scientific and technological transformations;
• natural, life and technical sciences to explore complex systems; and
• from arts, art history, science journalism and scientific illustration to explore the mediation and representation of complexities and complex findings in science and technology.

Location

The international center is part of RWTH Aachen University (Germany), which with a student body of 47,000 is one of the largest technical universities in Europe. With over fifty professorships and ten institutes from the humanities and social sciences, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities is an integral part of the interdisciplinary culture of teaching and research at RWTH Aachen University. Located at the borders of Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands (Euregio), it has close ties with STS institutes at the universities of Maastricht and Liège, and with the Jülich–Aachen Research Alliance (JARA BRAIN) at the neighboring Jülich Research Center, a research campus of more than 5,000 researchers.

Fellowship 

Fellows will join the international center for a maximum period of 12 months. The fellowships provide a full grant commensurate with applicants’ level of professional experience, working space in fully-equipped offices, logistical support, and access to the interdisciplinary research landscape and research labs at RWTH Aachen University. Fellows who take unpaid leave during their fellowship will receive financial compensation in the form of a stipend; alternatively, the center would pay for a teaching replacement at the fellow’s home institution. In order to create a stimulating intellectual environment among the resident research community, fellows are expected to routinely conduct much of their work from Aachen during their fellowship. Residency in Aachen is required and the center can support fellows in the search for accommodation.

Applications

Scholars can apply for either junior or senior fellowships. For junior fellows a successfully completed PhD is an eligibility requirement; for senior fellowships a professorship (associate, full professorship) or comparable position is expected. Applications (in English) should include a cover/motivational letter (1 page), CV (tabular, max. 2 pages), a project outline incl. intended goals/outcome of the project (max. 1300 words), and a list of publications. Please also submit a writing sample (journal article or book-chapter). Applications can be submitted via our application portal that you find here.

The deadline for applications is December 31, 2021.

Female researchers and scholars from the Global South are particularly encouraged to apply. For further information please visit the FAQs on this website.

https://khk.rwth-aachen.de/calls/10-junior-postdoc-senior-fellowships-starting-in-october-2022-for-up-to-12-months/