Sociable robots, jazz music, and divination: Contingency as a cultural resource for negotiating problems of intentionality

Abstract

In practices that range from mechanical divination in Central Africa to gamelike interactions among jazz students and the development of a jazz‐improvising humanoid robot marimba player in the United States, contextually meaningful contingency is widely used as a cultural resource for negotiating problems of intentionality. Whereas anthropologists have been concerned with the use of contingency mostly as a cultural resource for increasing predictability of intentions in conflictual situations, I highlight contexts pervaded by modern normative ideals of creativity in which predictability of intentions constitutes a problem, for which contextually meaningful contingency is used as a solution.

Imitation from a joint action perspective

“…Joint action may also create opportunities for creativity and innovation. The need to adjust to different partners in real time comes with constraints that may foster the emergence of new action patterns and create a wider space of exploration (Wilf, ). For example, trying to communicate information to a partner or trying to adapt to a partner's action outcomes could lead one to carry out an action or action sequence differently than if that same action was carried out alone.…”

The Post-it Note Economy: Understanding Post-Fordist Business Innovation through One of Its Key Semiotic Technologies

“…11. See Wilf (2013a) for a discussion of the use of contingency as a cultural resource for cultivating modern normative ideals of creative intentionality. For a critique of brainstorming from within the businessinnovation world, see Wilf (2015b).…”

A flavour of Alzheimer's

“…Such a perspective excludes neither the work of neuroscientific concepts and representations acquired through a long medical training, nor the use of standardized tests and technological procedures validated by evidence‐based medicine. As Wilf documents in the domain of music, ‘skills’ that jazz musicians acquire through grids, standards, hours of repetition, and preparation are a ‘necessary condition’ for them to improvise, but they are nevertheless ‘insufficient’ (: 608). These skills act as a frame that guides the expert but, as I showed in scene 2, technical and scientific knowledge is always confronted with particular situations: plans are insufficient to secure action (Suchman ).…”