eprintid: 10191298
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/19/12/98
datestamp: 2024-04-25 10:19:03
lastmod: 2024-04-25 10:19:03
status_changed: 2024-04-25 10:19:03
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Soon, Winnie
creators_name: Velasco, Pablo R
title: (De)constructing machines as critical technical practice
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B03
divisions: C01
divisions: F12
note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
abstract: This paper discusses the role of technology under the framework of Critical Technical Practice specifically in the form of constructing artefacts and deconstructing tools in order to produce what Philip Agre would describe as ‘reflexive work of critique’ (Agre, 1997:155). By presenting the activities and methods used in the teaching and shaping of undergraduate courses, this paper aims to show how technical objects, such as data, datasets, application programming interfaces and machine learning models, can be considered as discursive subjects, demonstrating pedagogical understanding across fields. The courses operate in the humanities tradition and take critical technical practice as a didactic approach, insofar as software and data are understood and manipulated on an instrumental level, while encouraging critical engagement and embodied reflection that bridge the technical and social/cultural domains. Within this pedagogical approach, critical is not only understood as a paradigm of rationality or quantitative, data-driven argumentation, but as adopting a critical position – that is, to research and reflect on the social structures and cultural phenomena entangled with digital objects, bodies, tools, methods and software production. By embracing work-in-progress and reflexive exploration, we aim to extend the notion of critical technical practice by unfolding how (de)constructing machines can be achieved beyond thinking of technology as neutral instrumentalisation. The challenge is how to find a balance, not only as researchers but as educators, unfolding aspects of both formality and functionality as well as questioning and understanding technology at a discursive and critical level. We argue that learning technical practice in an educational setting is not an end, but rather a means to question existing technological structures and create further changes in socio-technical systems.
date: 2024-02
date_type: published
publisher: International Council for Adult Education
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565221148098
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 2270589
doi: 10.1177/13548565221148
lyricists_name: Soon, Winnie
lyricists_id: WSOON27
actors_name: Soon, Winnie
actors_id: WSOON27
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
volume: 30
number: 1
pagerange: 116-141
citation:        Soon, Winnie;    Velasco, Pablo R;      (2024)    (De)constructing machines as critical technical practice.                   Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies , 30  (1)   pp. 116-141.    10.1177/13548565221148 <https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565221148>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10191298/1/Preprint_%28De%29constructingMachines_Learning_as_a_CTP.pdf