Ethics as Enacted through Movement – Shaping and Being Shaped by Autonomous Systems

2020–2024

(WASP-HS, Höök & Lampinen)

This project concerns how ethics is enacted and shaped in relationship to how autonomous systems are designed, focusing in particular, but not solely, on aerial drones. The research question we ask is whether felt experience and enactment of ethics as movement with drone-human assemblages during the design process can help design sedimented movements inviting users to deepen their somatic awareness; increasing social awareness of others in the environment and how they are affected by the drone-human assemblage; enactments of bodily freedoms rather than limitations; and aesthetic expression. The goal is to contribute new knowledge to the field of design and ethics – analytically, practically and pragmatically. A smaller, related project, DePILOT Reloaded (2020, VINNOVA, Mottola, Höök & Lampinen), explores Beyond Line of Sight drone control along with implicit and embodied piloting interfaces.