Relational architectures and wearable space: Smart schools and the politics of ubiquitous sensation

Abstract

This paper undertakes an analysis of the “smart school” as a building that both senses and manages bodies through sensory data. The authors argue that smart schools produce a situation of ubiquitous sensation in which learning environments are continuously sensed, regulated, and controlled through complex sensory ecosystems and data infrastructures. This includes the consideration of ethical and political issues associated with the collection of biometric and environmental data in schools and the implications for the design and operation of learning environments which are increasingly regulated through decentralized sensor networks. Working through a relational and adaptive theory of architecture, the authors explore ways of intervening in smart schools through the reconceptualization of sensor technologies as “atmospheric media” that operate within a distributed ecology of sensation that exceeds the limited bandwidth of the human senses. Drawing on recent projects in contemporary art, architecture, and interaction design, the authors discuss specific architectural interventions that foreground the atmospheric qualities and ethical problematics of sensor technologies in school buildings.

Collaborative augmentation and simplification of text (CoAST): pedagogical applications of natural language processing in digital learning environments

“…Peters and Besley (2013) argue that the increasing digitisation and decentralisation of the university holds significant opportunities for more democratic and imaginative forms of educational practice which emphasise "theories of collaboration, collective intelligence, commons-based peer production and mass participation in conceptions of open development" (p. x). However, twentyfirst century learning environments increasingly blur conventional boundaries between human and machine learning, raising questions about what it means to 'collaborate' with AI-driven algorithms, while also generating new sets of ethical and pragmatic problems regarding surveillance, control, and the automation of pedagogical work (de Freitas et al, 2019). Koper (2014) further cautions against the tendency to separate digital interfaces from the physical complex locations through which they are accessed, noting that elements of the physical environment continuously influence learners' engagement, attention, memory cueing, affective arousal, and encoding ability when interacting with digital learning interfaces.…”

Digital Technologies and the Automation of Education — Key Questions and Concerns

“…contexts that are flexible and can be programmed to shape the conduct of individual actors. This logic is epitomised in the imagined ideal of the 'smart school' -an educational environment that is replete with sensor technologies that measure, monitor and regulate the building and all its occupants (De Freitas et al 2020). This reconfigures the idea of 'school' or 'university' as an assortment of material spaces that are entwined with (and increasingly defined by) digital code -what Kitchin and Dodge (2011) term 'code/space'.…”

Atmospheric Intensities: Skin Conductance and the Collective Sensing Body

“…Such concerns motivate our engagement with children and young people around sensor technologies, and EDA sensors in particular, through collaborative research and artistic co-production (Rousell, Gallagher & Wright 2018). Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to conditions of ubiquitous sensation and data mining currently being mobilised in various built environments, where passive data is taken without their knowing (de Freitas, Rousell & Jäger 2019). This is exemplified in Intel's current smart classroom initiatives which aim to personalize learning environments through the collection of facial, gestural, emotional, and behavioural data.…”